News

 We have big plans for 2012 and hope the group will grow, that established events such as Peace Month (2^nd year this year), Fairtrade Fortnight and our charitable work will continue. Using the Diocesan Youth Center in Briton Ferry as a focal point, we are beginning to engage with young people from other parishes, and enable them to benefit from coming together to learn and have fun, too.

PEACE!

The Doves Youth Group features in July's edition of the Environment Centre Swansea's newsletter. Our fairtrade awareness raising and policy is featured in the article about us! Check it out here: http://www.environmentcentre.org.uk/news/archive/GL161.pdf

The Doves are the first UK Youth Group to receive Peace Mala Accreditation! The Doves Youth Group attended a very special ceremony hosted by the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Swansea. Pam Evans presented the Peace Mala certificate and Flag to the youth group, whilst Bishop Tom, Pam El-Hosaini (a trustee of Peace Mala), Father Ceirion and proud Doves parents looked on.

Pam Evans stated “The young Doves members have shown tremendous commitment to achieving Peace Mala accreditation in less than 6 months. Our message is: ‘Treat others as you would wish them to treat you’ and the group has focussed on this ethic throughout the accreditation process. We are now encouraging other youth groups from all over the UK to achieve this accreditation so they too can benefit from the values that the project brings to young people through the engagement in activities that promote peace and respect between all communities.”

Bishop Tom commented on the Doves “Marvellous endeavour” and that “even more is expected in future from the Doves Youth Group”, and congratulated the Doves as they had “brought together different cultures, religions and lifestyles, and promoted sharing a mutual understanding”.

The Mayor also congratulated the Doves and stated that “We as Catholics have to get out there and show we are doing the business - which is exactly what you have done.”

The City and County of Swansea featured the event on the front page of their website plus the story also featured on other Welsh News websites. The Evening Post sent a photographer and an article about us featured in April 28th Evening Post.

Special Guest: Kelsang Tumo the Resident Teacher at the Dharmavajra Kadampa Buddhist Centre in Swansea.

Kelsang Tumo spoke to us about Buddhism in general, then told us about her branch of Buddhism and also gave us an insight into the similarities between Christianity and Buddhism, least of all our shared golden rule that you must treat others as you wish to be treated. Kelsang Tumo very kindly answered all our questions and gave us a very personal and unique insight into Buddhism.

Many thanks to Kelsang Tumo for coming to speak to us!

World record *hopefully* fairtrade cotton bunting - designed by Doves!

As part of Fairtrade Fortnight the Doves Youth Group decorated fairtrade cotton bunting to help the Fairtrade Foundation's Guinness World Record attempt to make the longest, and fairest ever piece of bunting. The current record is 2,696 meters long - so fingers crossed for the 8th May, 2011 (World Fair Trade Day) when the Fairtrade Foundation will be hanging up all the bunting!

For details of our other Fairtrade Fortnight activities see our special fairtrade page!

The Doves are featured in the Menevia News again!

This time not one but two articles appear. Firstly our year report and secondly our article on the visit we had from BulliesOut has made the diocesean paper. Check it out by downloading it below.

Remember BulliesOut has lots of information on bullying, so if you want to find out more visit their website at: www.bulliesout.com

Biodiversity - the stuff of life!

Did you miss Jo's fab biodiversity talk? Never fear you can download the presentation below to enjoy at any time.

A big thank you to Jo for coming to the Doves and giving such an informative and interactive talk.

We support the City of Sanctuary - Swansea!

Our resolution of support:

"We, the Doves Youth Group, support the initiative to make Swansea into a recognised ‘City of Sanctuary’, welcoming those fleeing violence and persecution in their own countries. We recognise the contribution of refugees and those seeking sanctuary to the City of Swansea. We are committed to taking practical steps to welcome and include them in our activities and are actively seeking ways of supporting them wherever we can. We are willing for our organisation’s name to be added to a list of supporters of City of Sanctuary. We are also willing to be contacted by the Swansea City of Sanctuary group with further ideas for how we can turn this pledge into practical action."

Date: 1st January 2011

Actions:
We will display a digital copy of the City of Sanctuary Swansea Welcome window sticker on our facebook page and website.

We are looking forward to the talk that will be given to the Doves Youth Group in February and the Youth Leaders will do a write up for our website so members who missed the talk, and indeed future members can still hear the message of welcome and tolerance of the City of Sanctuary Swansea. A write up will also appear in the Parish Newsletter so all the Parish of St. David’s Priory will be informed.

We will also post this resolution of support on our website.

The Parish of Saint David’s Priory Swansea does, and has in the past welcomed refugees into our community.

 We appear on the City of Sanctuary Website as a supporter of the City of Sanctuary.

The Doves make front page news!

Read all about it! Doves Youth Group makes front page (continued on page 4) news. The article detailing Pam Evans' Peace Mala visit to the Doves Youth Group - Grŵp Ieuenctid Colomennod is on the front page of this month's Menevia News. Click here, download the pdf below or pick up a copy next time you are in mass.

BulliesOut!

What does Bill Gates, Kate Winslet, Joe Calzaghe and Aston from JLS have in common? Other than being very successful individuals they have all been bullied at some point in their lives.

On the eve of anti-bullying week the Doves Youth Group in Swansea invited Welsh charity BulliesOut to come and give a practical workshop in order to provide the members with a better understanding of bullying. BulliesOut works with individuals who have been bullied, bullies and bystanders - which is an essential approach for tackling the dreadful experience of bullying. BulliesOut offers advice, online mentors (who you can ‘talk to’ online), provides training on prevention and conducts research into bullying.

The evening commenced with a workshop which got the Doves thinking about the differences between conflict and bullying. We then moved onto discussing the 3 major forms of bullying; physical, mental and indirect bullying. The issue of cyber bullying was also raised. This form of bullying is on the increase, sadly Linda pointed out that often websites where it occurs are slow to remove offensive posts - however things are improving and BulliesOut, amongst other anti-bullying organisations continue to lobby the online community and provide help to those on the receiving end of cyber bullying.

We finished up by engaging in a hand of courage creative workshop. This involved personalising our own hands of courage by painting them. The hand symbol which promotes the courage not to accept bullying behaviour as a victim, a bystander or as a bully. If bullies understood why they bully and the consequences of their action perhaps they would have the courage to change.  The hand also acts as a reminder for everyone to offer support and friendship to all.

BulliesOut don’t just work with children and young people. They also work actively with parents and have a wealth of information available. The charity also works with educational institutions and teachers to raise awareness, promote best practice and to help professionals to tackle bullying effectively.

If you would like to find out more about BulliesOut or you feel you need support please see their website: http://www.bulliesout.com/

Talk with BulliesOut 14th November 2010, 7 -9pm.

The Doves will be hosting speakers from BulliesOut. Everyone is welcome. Check out the Events page for more details!

Doves hosted a special talk with Pam Evans.

(17/10/10) The St. David's Youth Group was pleased to be able to host a talk with Pam Evans the creator of Peace Mala. For more details on the talk see our Doves@PeaceMala page, for more details on Peace Mala see our Peace Mala page. The Doves are currently working towards Peace Mala Youth Group Accreditation. More details will appear shortly as we progress.

Well, well, well!

(10/10/10) As you know, the Doves youth group have been fundraising for WaterAid.  After raising the initial target from one well to three, fund raising continued with vigour, and we are very pleased to announce that this target has been achieved!!  With your help, enough money has been raised to purchase three wells for communities that currently have no clean water, this is  a huge achievement, and could not have been done without YOU!  Thank you to everyone who gave their support.

New Doves Charity.

(03/10/10) The Youth Group members nominated several local charities at the previous Doves Meeting, and tonight was ballot night! After the votes were cast and counted the new charity the Doves will be raising money for is the Christian Lewis Trust - the Children's Cancer Charity. The Charity offers support for children and their families affected by cancer.

Doves Charity Community Quiz Night.

(14/08/10) On Quiz night we had 6 teams epically battling it out over 8 rounds of puzzling questions. The charity quiz included a picture round, questions about geography, sport, entertainment, random knowledge and two particularly bamboozling rounds of cryptic clues for films and TV program titles. The overall team scores were close but only two teams made it to the tie break round which challenged the team’s historical knowledge and mathematical skills, in order to find who was going to be crowned the Doves Charity Quiz Team Champions 2010! In the end 'The Incredibles' narrowly beat 'Twist, Body and Perk' to the coveted prizes. Whilst the Kewl Doodz scooped the unique last place prizes. Well done to all, and a big thank you to all those who helped out and supported the event by donating prizes, making tickets, bringing food, writing questions and of course, participating in the quiz! The night was a huge success and raised over £100 for the  Pakistan Flood Appeal.

Summer Sweetness Jam and Cake Sale.

(11/08/10) A huge thanks to Mike and Daphne, who made most of the delicious Jam. Plus, there was some yummy yummy gooey home-made toffee by James' mum - thank you too. The sale went exceptionally well and raised alot of money.

DovesProm.

(15/07/10) A huge thank you to the City and County of Swansea Lord Mayor Richard Lewis and the Lady Mayoress Angela Lewis for generously inviting the Doves to the glitzy Mansion House for the DovesProm on Tuesday evening.

Cake Sale Success!

(27/06/10) A huge thank you to all the members of the parish who came and supported us, and those kindly donated delicious cakes for us to sell for our continued WaterAid fundraising. Plus a massive thanks to all those who after mass last week came over to the hall and enjoyed some fabulous cakes with us. We managed to raise over £100 from the cake sale for WaterAid - the current charity the Doves are fundraising.