Blackpool Foyer residents are taken for a ride!

Blackpool Foyer residents and staff enjoyed a fun filled day at Camelot theme park, as part of their annual away day.

The aim of the away day is to give both staff and residents at Blackpool Foyer an opportunity to air their views, discuss the services delivered and hopefully come up with some great ideas about how improvements can be made.

The day started with breakfast in the training room and some very sleepy residents! Staff and residents were then bundled on to the coach and set off for Camelot theme park. Stuart Dunne from Blackpool Youth Services, kindly agreed to facilitate the event and started off with a quiz and bingo on the coach!

Once the coach arrived at Camelot, it was time for some hard work, as residents and staff got stuck in to the workshops that had been planned. Residents had the opportunity to produce a model of an ‘ideal’ member of staff; staff had an opportunity to get their own back, by producing an ‘ideal’ resident!

It was then time to discuss some of the issues within the Foyer: residents gave some really positive feedback and developed some great ideas for the future of Blackpool Foyer. Residents were keen to see more activities being held within the Foyer and are looking forward to taking these ideas forward.

Gary Cook (Operations Manager) was then put on the hot seat, and answered questions from residents, a la Question time! Residents questions were as focussed and as hard hitting as those of David Dimbleby, but Gary managed to hold his ground!

All of the ideas and suggestions, gathered from the away day workshops, are being written up and will feature in the Foyers action plan. It’s really important that the residents at Blackpool Foyer make their views heard and the staff team plan to act upon the concerns and issues raised at the away day, to make the Foyer a better place to live (and work!)

Once the hard work was out of the way, it was time for some fun! Staff and residents watched the jousting tournament, before stuffing their faces with lots of yummy food! Before the food had time to settle, it was off for some fast paced roller coaster action. Both staff and residents were flung up side down & spun around before wobbling back to the coach and heading home to Blackpool Foyer!

The coach journey home was notably quieter! It appeared that staff and residents had thoroughly enjoyed their day, but were looking forward to their beds!