Guinness Northern Counties organise KAOS in East Manchester

Sports sessions, art classes and a lesson in graffiti were all part of the fun when a group of young people signed up for the KAOS project in Clayton, East Manchester.

Spread over a three-week period during the school summer holidays, the project involving 42 young people aged six to 16 involved various sports sessions at Clayton Park and a park clean up.

The group also visited Unity Radio in Ancoats, Manchester, where they had the chance to learn graffiti art with Andy Parle, Heath Lowe, Sam Richardson, Wes Milne and Curtis Graham. The 10 4ft x 8ft boards spelling out Clayton Youth Centre will be donated to the centre at its open day in September.

This is the second year the project, organised and run by local housing association Guinness Northern Counties, has been available for Clayton young people and sessions began on 26 July with sports events run on a daily basis, and art and graffiti classes held weekly at Unity Radio.

The course ended with a presentation on Friday 13 August at Unity Radio where each of the children were presented with certificates of achievement. They also received t-shirts, CDs, and sports goodie bags from Guinness Northern Counties, Unity Radio and MCC Leisure services coaches.

Joann McRoy, Guinness Northern Counties housing officer, said: “The course has been a great success. It was great for the kids to spend time at Unity and see how things work there and they really enjoyed the mixture of activities over the three weeks.

“I’d like to thank other local organisations for their contributions and support with this project, especially Manchester City Council Leisure Services coaches and Unity Radio. These projects are all about teaching the children how to work together and bring our communities closer, and we are setting the example by working with partner organisations to benefit the community we live in.”