A crew of Southside Young Leaders committed to a journey that would lead to an adventure of dinghy sailing across the choppy waters of the Solent.

For the second year running a group of SYLA boys would be spending time on the water, this time for five days at the UK Sailing Academy in the Isle of White. Here they followed the daily ritual of hoisting the mainsail, raising the sheets and heading the boats into the wind before their fleet could set sail.

With life jackets secured and safety briefings noted, the young crew were given a thorough lesson on boat control, tides, wind velocity and direction prior to scrambling into their dinghies.

Also on board was our very own master and commander, Mark Shopi, Leadership Instructor and acting Admiral overseeing his crew. Mark believes sailing is about control and maximising an individual's potential.

"They got the most out of their boats even with low wind, demonstrating resourcefulness," he said, "it's also a fear-conquering exercise, the dangers of playing in unchartered waters can be analogous to life, these boys did it for real," he added.

And the fun didn't stop there. One of our intrepid sailors had managed to capsize his dinghy, "it was freezing cold... the salt water was disgusting," he said. Another team member, also went 'man-overboard' but this time in deeper waters, some ten meters out from shore; within a split second his brother, plunged in after him. Lifeguards and safety crew arrived at the scene and lifted the brothers out, who were both chuckling with excitement.

 The five day adventure also included teams taking part in volleyball and water polo matches, six miles of kayaking, and of course there was plenty of swimming. The last two days were spent with the boys taking excursion trips to explore the Isle of White on land and visiting many of the historical sites.

Mark explains: "Many skills in sailing are transferrable; concentration, focus, persistence, perseverance and enhanced listening skills as understanding of safety is paramount. The lads pushed themselves physically, mentally and emotionally always working as a team, chances of their feet landing firmly on the ground are better now because they've already walked on water first."         

A key component of our family programme focuses on well-being, self-discovery and unlocking leadership potential by acknowledging ones past. To celebrate Black History Month, Southside Young Leaders' Academy has created the Hidden Heritage Family Project; a project about shared learning and discovery. The aim of the project is to use different mediums for our families to explore, celebrate and share the journey of their own family history (past and present) with the wider community.   

We will be asking our families (boys and parents) to work together to research their family history.

The aim of the project is: 

• to encourage partnership working within the family
• to encourage learning and creativity as a family activity
• to celebrate black history and the hidden heritage of our service users
• to enhance intergenerational relationships
• to enhance communication skills of boys and parents
• to exhibit family histories in the local area 

The project was conducted in two phases: 

Phase 1: My Journey, Your Journey, Our Journey - Family research and artwork 

The families were asked to create a display comprising of: pictures, facts, stories, songs, photos, maps, testimonies, interviews, and artefacts etc which told the story of their family's journey.  

To further support this work we created a 'living document' of the boys and their parent's black history experiences - each family was given an A2 piece of fabric to decorate and personalize  to represent and celebrate their family. This formed part of a larger Southside Young Leaders' Academy Family quilt; which we hope will grow and be added to as new families join the Academy and include their journeys. In the future we could also extend an invitation to other family organisations in the borough to create a borough wide family quilt/tapestry. 

Phase 2: Community Exhibition 

We also shared our families' histories within the wider community by holding a week long celebration of family led workshops and an exhibition at The House Café & Gallery in Camberwell. The week included: 

• The display of Southside families' work and the completed quilt  
• Opening night event/buffet: including parent's presentation and boys drilling display. Family quilt presentation - boys and parents discussed their quilt pieces: inspirations and meanings etc.
• A two hour family creative art workshop for families with young children exploring the issues of identity, family and black history.

The 2009 S J Berwin project consists of two parts, each comprising 50% of the total marks. Part A will test leadership, behaviour and management potential. Part B will focus on the student's research into the music industry and its processes as well as the student's communication skills about how the law on copyright can be promoted in the evolving music world. 

The project has to be completed by 12^th September and S J Berwin will make the award in October 2009.

Southside Young Leaders' Academy celebrated its first Anniversary at a reception hosted by leading law firm, S J Berwin LLP, on 27^th April 2009.

 * Click here to view Derrick's poem