Projects
Rhydyfelin Middle Youth Theatre
Rhydyfelin Middle Youth is a drama group for anyone aged 10-12 who is interested in drama. We currently meet every Wednesday between 6:15-7:45pm at Rhydyfelin Community Centre. Please contact kiara@valleyskids.biz for more information.
Penrhys Drama Workshop
Penrhys Drama Workshop - Every Thursday 6pm-7pm at Llanfair Uniting Church, Penrhys CF43 3NW
For More Information, email: miranda@valleyskids.biz
Join the Dots… a partnership with Sparc, Valleys Kids and Leeway Productions.
Sparc, Valleys Kids Youth Arts Project is so excited about our ‘Join the Dots’ Project, a huge thank you to the Arts Council of Wales for funding this
through the ‘Create’ lottery scheme. We are thrilled to be working in partnership with Leeway Production & supported by Llanfair Uniting Church in
Penrhys, Wales Millennium Centre and National Dance Company Wales.
Dinas Drama Group
Do you like performing? If you want a space to be Creative and make friends, then drama group might be for you.
Dinas Drama Group
Every Thursday 4-5pm @ Dinas Project
For more information email: miranda@valleyskids.biz
Join the Dots… a partnership with Sparc, Valleys Kids and Leeway Productions.
Sparc, Valleys Kids Youth Arts Project is so excited about our ‘Join the Dots’ Project, a huge thank you to the Arts Council of Wales for funding this
through the ‘Create’ lottery scheme. We are thrilled to be working in partnership with Leeway Production & supported by Llanfair Uniting Church in
Penrhys, Wales Millennium Centre and National Dance Company Wales.
Rhydyfelin Drama Workshop
Rhydyfelin Drama Workshop is a drama group for anyone aged 8-10 who is interested in drama. We currently meet every Wednesday between 4:30-6:00pm at Rhydyfelin Community Centre. Please contact kiara@valleyskids.biz for more information.
Rhydyfelin Youth Theatre
Rhydyfelin Youth Theatre is a theatre group for anyone interested in drama aged 13+ and enjoys creating stories. We currently meet every Monday between 6:00-8:00pm at Rhydyfelin Community Centre. Please contact kiara@valleyskids.org for more information.
Penyrenglyn Youth Theatre
We meet every Wednesday at the Penyrenglyn Project at 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm. The group is suitable for 11 - 16 year olds. Whatever your ability, if you want to make new friends or have fun while being creative, you're sure to have something to enjoy at Penyrenglyn Youth Theatre! We are a relaxed, friendly group who have a lot of fun creating drama. Please contact gemma@valleyskids.org for information, or to get involved
Penygraig Drama Workshop
Penygraig Drama Workshop is a weekly drama group that’s takes place every Thursday from 4:30 - 5:45pm at Soar Centre, and is for young people between the ages of 7 - 12, where we play games, explore storytelling and create a space to find friendship and discover ourselves. Please contact gemma@valleyskids.biz for more information.
Penygraig Youth Theatre
Penygraig Youth Theatre is a weekly drama group that takes place every Thursday from 6:00-8:00pm at Soar Centre, Penygraig for people between the ages of 13-18+. We are currently running sessions to provide a space where we can support one another, have fun and develop our drama work. Please contact kiara@valleyskids.biz for more information.
Flight Wings Creative Group
Rhydyfelin Flight Wings is a 16+ integrated creative group. We are currently running all sessions every Tuesday 4:00-5:45pm in Stiwdio Sparc at The Factory in Porth. Please contact gemma@valleyskids.biz for information, or to get involved.
Jiggers Creative Dance
Jiggers dance is a creative dance group for children aged 4-7. We currently meet every Monday between 4:00 - 5:00pm at the Soar Centre in Penygraig. Please get in touch with gemma@valleyskids.org for further information and to get involved.
Groovers Dance
Groovers creative dance is run in partnership with Afon dance for anyone aged 8-12. We currently meet every Monday between 5:15 - 6:15pm at the Soar Centre in Penygraig. Please contact gemma@valleyskids.org for more information.
Radio Platfform @ The Factory
Our radio station in The Factory is open for graduates of the Radio Platfform training to come and create their own shows. Please contact Zuzana if you’re planning on coming in, or if you’d like to do the training in the future.
Mentoring and Support
As part of our 16-25 Flight Wings programme, we offer young people mentoring and support. These one to one sessions can support with CV writing, job applications, interview techniques, school, college or university coursework as well as providing character references for those engaged in the project. We can additionally offer a friendly face and an open mind when people are struggling for support or having a difficult time and simply need someone to talk to. To book in a session, or for more information contact gemma@valleyskids.biz
Volunteering and Placements
At Sparc, we welcome young people to join us for school, college or university placements, whether it is for work experience or a specified course placement we are happy to help. We also have a volunteering programme for local young people and students to come and get involved with the running of events, drama workshops and cinema screenings. Volunteering allows people to donate time back to the community, as well as learning a range of skills, including workshop facilitation, technical theatre, costume and set design, administration and hosting events/performances. School holidays are an ideal time to get involved in volunteering on one of our many projects that run during this time. Each placement and volunteering experience is tailored to the individual and is well supported by a team of trained youth arts workers. If your aged 14+ and interested to get involved, please contact gemma@valleyskids.biz.
Peer Led
Sparc run a peer led programme, for those young people looking to develop their skills, and in need of support. We currently have a peer-led dance programme, which is supported by the Sparc team. We welcome requests from young people aged 16-25 looking to make something happen in their community, and in need of some support and assistance.
Make It!
Make it! A brand new network, commissioning and touring model led by and for emerging artists in Rhondda Cynon Taff (RCT).
Make it! is a new model of theatre making. It is an emerging artist-led network that seeks to connect up-and-coming performance creatives aged 18 – 29 in RCT with each other. Make it! also aims to innovate the way performance is commissioned, made and toured. The project runs for 18 months from July 2021 – February 2023 and is funded by the Arts Council of Wales ‘Connect & Flourish’ second round funding stream. Emerging artists will commission and create their own artistic practice, produce performance themselves, then tour the work to venues and community spaces across RCT and beyond.
Make it! was an urgent call from emerging artists – Covid 19 and ‘Lockdown’ saw everything come to a halt for graduates and early career artists, especially those from disadvantaged areas. Through Sparc, Valleys Kids an emerging artist group met to address this problem. They shared their individual manifestos’ for change in open meetings with freelancers and organisations who rallied to support them. Out of this the partnership was born.
Please contact yasmin for information, or to get involved.
Life Hack 2022
Letting Creativity Loose with Life Hack
Life Hack is a free creative event for ages 14-25 years from all backgrounds delivered through our Together Stronger partnership with Wales Millennium Centre. Life Hack is a creative careers fair, with interactive creative workshops, networking opportunities and a silent disco to finish the day! This year we had around 35 participants and 14 creative facilitators and organisations, including Off ya Trolley Productions, Square Pegs Studios, Promo Cymru, Citrus Arts, and the Children’s Poet Laureate for Wales, Connor Allen.
Life Hack is young person led and has a steering group which includes Valleys Kids’ member Luke McGrath. He had an active role in last year’s digital event and was hired to help this year, allowing him to build event management skills. This event is aimed at the curious and gives young people the opportunity to find more about creative careers and ask any questions they wish.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our funders. This event is organised through our Together Stronger partnership with Wales Millennium Centre and funded by the Arts Council of Wales and Welsh Government.
Shwmae Cymraeg
The Sparc team are passionate about the Welsh language, none of us are fluent Welsh speakers but we want to learn. Each fortnight, we will set a new challenge for ourselves and we would love for you to join in the fun of learning Welsh with us.
We hope that the learners and fluent Welsh speakers can all get involved so that we can help each other with our beautiful language.
All ‘Shwmae Cymraeg’ challenges will be posted on our website, and all social media platforms. Links to these can be found here.
Puddle Jump: Stories for Families
With the support of the Arts Council of Wales’ Covid-19 Stabilisation Fund, Sparc – Valleys Kids Youth Arts Project – has joined forces with their Future Families Team to launch Puddle Jump an exciting new project to support the wellbeing of children and families. Puddle Jump is a therapeutic storytelling project that offers support to families in a creative and imaginative way. The title, ‘Puddle Jump’, refers to how children react to grief and trauma by jumping in and out of this experience.
Through this pilot project we have worked with a team of specialist freelance storytellers and practitioners to create a range of fun and magical storytelling sessions, story based craft and wellbeing activities and online story resources to support and empower children and families at this challenging time. An imaginative array of stories has been carefully selected by Sparc and the Future Families team. The stories chosen have been specially written to enable children to explore difficult feelings or experiences such as anxiety and loss, in an accessible way.
From an invisible string that connects us with loved ones wherever they are, to an owl who finds a worry spot, to a little girl that wakes to find a HUGE bag of worries, they explore a world of imagination to inspire conversations and understanding around well-being. To find out more about the Puddle Jump project and therapeutic storytelling with families please contact Miranda by emailing miranda@valleyskids.org.
The Puddle Jump stories are introduced by a short animation which has been beautifully illustrated by Angie Stevens and animated by Guy Evans.
With thanks to the Arts Council of Wales for the grant award through the Covid stabilisation fund.
