Upping the game for youth activities

ALL things gaming came to Creswick yesterday as part of an event aimed at engaging the town’s young people.

Organised by Creswick Neighbourhood Centre staff, the initiative saw a suite of tech and consoles set up at the venue courtesy of Level-Up! Gaming Events.

More than 50 attendees took part in the initiative which CNC manager Chrissy Austin said was all about bringing something for the region’s young people.

“It’s to do something fun in Youth Week and to showcase the role young people play in our society,” she said.

“It’ll be a whole range of games for boys and girls. There’s a bit of a drought of activities for young people in the region so we want to be part of the solution.”

Newer systems like the Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X, and VR headsets as well as older consoles were featured.

The free event was funded with $2000 from the State Government as part of Youth Fest.

Ms Austin said the event was the springboard for a number of youth-based initiatives set to start during the second week of the school term.

“We’ve got one for 10-to-14-year-olds called our games lab which’ll be a Thursday weekly program involving games, boardgames, and LEGO,” she said.

“Then we have a kids’ come and learn chess, a four-week program where our U3A volunteers will teach chess to our grades 3 to 6s.

“Then throughout Children’s Week, we’ll have mega builds of LEGO that the kids can work on throughout the week.”