Swan Highlights

What a wonderful final week of our HAPpy Camp Summer 2026! We started the week with park fun, a visit to the Town Hall library and a very important discovery… we thought we'd found Marge Simpson's hair! 😄 Thankfully, it was just our first attempt at making our own candy floss! There were lots of smiles, a wonderful lunch together and plenty of candy floss making. A lovely start to our last week of HAPpy Camp. Food continued to be a big part of the week. We used freshly picke

What another incredible week of HAPpy Camp at The Swan! We had a lovely day at the park playing pickleball, frisbee and, in true Swan style, running about like loons! 😄 Back at The Swan, our young people helped prepare lunch with sticky rice, gyoza and noodles, followed by banana bread for pudding. The challenge of the day was to eat with chopsticks, and we had a good laugh trying! It was wonderful to see our members trying new foods and having a go at new skills. We ended t

A huge thank you to David Taylor MP and Victoria Collins for their support during our meeting about the Dacorum Youth Hub. Thank you both for helping The Swan Youth Project connect with partners working on a youth hub for Dacorum. It was really positive to see cross-party work being done to support young people within Dacorum. This collaboration shows that despite political differences, we can work together for a better future for young people in our communities. Watch this s

What a fantastic first week of HAPpy Camp at The Swan! Our young people got involved in so many different activities throughout the week. We spent time at the park playing dodgeball, trying an exercise circuit and playing plenty of games together. Back at The Swan, there was lots of creativity with decorated water bottles, Hama beads, drawing and clay modelling. 🎨✨ Food was a big part of our week too. Our young people helped prepare lunches, chopped fruit and vegetables, lea

Catherine McArevey, who was Mayor of Dacorum at the time, took the Hot Seat at The Swan back in May. Our young people asked their own questions, heard about Catherine’s journey and learnt more about the role of Mayor. Watch the full Hot Seat interview below. 🔥💜

A huge thank you to everyone involved in Berko Beerfest for such an incredible event. It was wonderful to see so many people having fun while raising much-needed funds for charities, including The Swan Youth Project. ❤️ We had our Swan table at the event, giving people the chance to come and say hello and find out more about our work supporting young people in the community. There were some seriously cold pints, fantastic music from Electric Brolly and the awesome Soul Suppli

A huge thank you to our wonderful Waitrose Berkhamsted angels 😇 for their donation towards our end-of-term party on 17th July. They are so generous and kind and always think about supporting us at The Swan Youth Project. We couldn't do it without Maggie and the team and everything they do to make a positive difference to our members. We adore you all! ❤️ Community supporting community.

What a wonderful time we had at the Community Fete at George Street Park with the lovely team from Sunnyside Church Berkhamsted. We were so blessed to be part of this lovely event, with lots of arts and crafts, temporary tattoos and plants for sale. Lots of plants were sold, many tattoos were applied and it was lovely to see so many people come along and enjoy the afternoon. A huge thank you to everyone involved in making the day so enjoyable, including our special guests. An

We would like to thank our local Berkhamsted police officers for visiting us at The Swan Youth Project. 🚓👮‍♂️ Our young people had a fantastic time exploring the police car, asking lots of questions and discussing important ways to keep themselves and others safe. Thank you to the officers for taking the time to talk with our young people, helping to build positive relationships and making it such an enjoyable and informative visit for everyone involved.

A HUGE thank you to the wonderful Vicki, Sandra and the team at COOK for their generous donation of meals to The Swan Youth Project. We are so very grateful for this. As part of our mission, we believe that no child should go hungry, and having this support means so much to us and our young people. We are so blessed to have such amazing support from our local community. Community helping community. ❤️

The very amazing James Butler took on our Hot Seat! What many people may not know is that James has also been volunteering at The Swan Youth Project and has been an invaluable member of our team. He has been so engaging with our members, his cooking skills weren't bad either 😄, and all round he has just been a great human to have around. James has a new job, so we just wanted to say it's been a blast and we hope you come back and see us soon. All the best in your future ende

We had a wonderful time at the Eco Fair at The Civic Centre with Berkhamsted Town Council, selling pre-loved clothes. It was such a great event, and incredible to see so many people contributing to keeping our planet healthy. 🌍💚 On the other hand, my modelling was not quite up there with Gucci… but you can but try! 😄 A lovely day and great to be part of it.

We had lots of fun this month, tried new things, got a bit messy and laughed a lot. We made crafts, tried slime, spent time outside, did a bit of gardening and had two days at the skate park. 🌱🙌 There were also plenty of games, good food and, of course… chocolate! 🍫✨ Lots of fresh air, moving, chatting and good energy. These are the everyday days at The Swan. A place where young people have: ☝🏻 Somewhere to go 🌟☝🏻 Something to do 🌟☝🏻 Someone to listen 🌟 And sometimes

What an incredible gift from Waitrose Berkhamsted, and especially the incredible Maggie Pal! This is also thanks to all the Waitrose customers who selected The Swan Youth Project to receive this donation through the Green Token Scheme. We are so very grateful for the community supporting community. Your money will help make a huge difference to our members. Additionally, thanks to Brinn for holding the cheque up! And to anyone looking at the photo, I can assure you that I do

May was another busy month for our County Lines workshops, run with Luke and Amy from First People Housing CIC. We started at CSEC on 13 May, talking to students about the dangers of County Lines and the ongoing rise in ketamine use. A huge thanks to Polly and her team for making it happen. On 14 May we visited Links St Albans. It was an honest, engaging session, and one moment stood out: a student offering support to one of the adults in the room. Thanks to Mr Buckland and h

A huge thank you to QCS for hosting such a wonderful fundraising event for us at The Swan Youth Project as part of their World Cultural Day celebration. 💙 Their staff went above and beyond, each cooking their own amazing dishes for us to taste and vote on — and wow, the competition was fierce! 🍽️👏 The effort, generosity and community spirit shown throughout the evening meant so much to us. At The Swan Youth Project, we are passionate about promoting acceptance, inclusion a

At the end of April, we welcomed Celine from Hector's House to the Hot Seat at The Swan Youth Project. Celine shared a little about the work Hector's House does to support mental health, while our members got the chance to ask their own questions, have a laugh and get to know her better. From mental health and wellbeing to some more unexpected questions, it was a great conversation with plenty of honest answers along the way. Watch the video below to find out what Swan member

We were lucky to have some lovely volunteers join us at The Swan Youth Project to make tote bags and pencil cases with our young people. ✨ As it was Mental Health Awareness Week, we wanted to do an activity that encouraged our young people to step away from their phones and everyday stresses for a while, and instead focus on creativity, connection and wellbeing. 💚 It was amazing to see how creative everyone got, and we were completely blown away by some of the designs and wo

A huge thank you to the then Mayor of Dacorum, Catherine McArevey, for visiting The Swan Youth Project and taking part in our “Hot Seat” session with young people. It was a really inspiring afternoon, full of thoughtful questions, honest conversations and lots of laughter. Our young people asked questions about things that matter to them, including safe spaces to spend time with friends, protecting the environment, mental wellbeing and how they can make their voices heard in

We're excited to launch something new at The Swan Youth Project – Hot Seat. Hot Seat is all about real conversations. No scripts, no pressure and no prepared answers. Just honest stories, interesting people and the questions young people genuinely want to ask. We're delighted to share that our very first guest was Fr Stuart Owen, who kindly agreed to take on the challenge. He answered every question with warmth, honesty and good humour, making it a brilliant first Hot Seat se