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POETIC PENWITH PARENTS ENCOURAGED TO PUT PEN TO PAPER

Parents and carers in the Penwith area are being urged to put their thoughts and feelings about their children into poetry for an exciting new writing project.
Any parent or carer registered at one of the five Children’s Centres in Penwith is welcome to write a poem entitled “My Child”.

It must be written as if to your child or children or be about your child or children and can include anything from thoughts to memories, experiences, plans, wishes or expectations.

Poems should be no more than 20 lines and will be collected together in a booklet to be made available in Children’s Centres from September.

There are 20 Children’s Centres across the county being developed by Cornwall County Council’s Family Services offering consistent high-quality fully integrated facilities for children and their families within their communities. The centres bring together a range of partner agencies to offer early learning and day care, health services, parental support services for families with children under the age of five. By 2010 the aim is that all young children and their families in Cornwall will be able to access Children’s Centre facilities.

The poetry project was the brainchild of Libby Pentreath, the new manager of Penzance Children’s Centre, who came up with the idea when she was meeting with a family.

Libby explained: “The original thinking behind the project was to help boost parents’ self-esteem but it is also a great way for families to take time to reflect and celebrate the highs and lows of their relationships with their children.”

Poems should be sent to or dropped in at one of centres listed below and marked Poetry for Penwith Children. Please indicate if you’re happy for the poem to be reproduced under your name or whether you want to remain anonymous. If help is needed to get ideas down on paper, please contact Libby Pentreath through one of the centres.

Penwith’s centres are:
• Hayle Children’s Centre - 01736 759058
• Bodriggy Street, Hayle, TR27 4ND
• Penzance Children’s Centre - 01736 334850
• Lescudjack, Penmere Close, Penzance, TR18 3PE
• St Ives Children’s Centre -01736 798509
• Trenwith Burrows, St Ives, TR26 1DJ
• Marazion, St Erth and St Hilary Children’s Centre (send to/contact Hayle)
• Pendeen and St Just Children’s Centre (send to/contact St Ives)