Updates

The past three and a half months have taught me loads. Practically I’ve discovered how to edit video and how to continue youthwork relationships online; spiritually I’ve discovered the power of mindfulness and creating 10 minutes of space in my day, I’ve also re-discovered a love of reading; personally I’ve learnt not to raid the biscuit tin too often, and how amazing it is to have lunch together as a family every day. But in Read more…

Over the last few weeks its been a real privilege to be part of some of the zoom conversations between young people and Bishop Rachel for a forth-coming podcast. Together we’ve chatted about the challenges of being a young person in lockdown, coping with the isolation, home-schooling and lack of social life. There have been some really frank and honest revelations about how we’re all being affected. What’s also been fascinating is hearing all the Read more…

One of the key principles of youthwork that I love is that of empowerment. This is often best illustrated by thinking about space (as in somewhere to be, not the solar system!). In most contexts young people occupy space which they neither control or have ownership of, be it school, home or social spaces. Excellent youthwork empowers young people to take ownership and control of a space (normally a youth centre, but any space will Read more…

One of the first young people I mentored was a 12 year old boy called Matt. He had a complicated background and family, and I would often get confused by all the names and how they were related. One day I asked Matt to draw me a family tree – this was an amazing time as it gave him time to spend a few minutes describing each person and the relationship he had with them. Read more…

What started as an idea from one parent to make her family’s daily walk a little more interesting, has become an image of hope and gratefulness. The original Facebook group has the description “Our children soon won’t be able to see their friends. Create a rainbow picture to display in your window so that children can go rainbow spotting whilst out for walks.” Who doesn’t love the sight of a Rainbow in the sky – Read more…

A friend of mine, a single parent, posts her “reasons to be grateful” on Facebook every evening. When she started doing this, like with most posts, I gave it a cursory glance if and when I saw it. Now I find myself looking out for her posts each day. Partly I’m sure because of the morbid human curiosity of peeking into other people’s daily lives, but mostly because seeing the simple things in her day Read more…

Trying to remember what day of the week it is, let alone what date or month it is, is quite a challenge at the moment. I’ve just taken five minutes to run back through my diary trying to work out what I’ve been up to, and I think I can summarise it like this: Week 1 – novelty, sitting on the sofa, finishing off half-finished jobs Week 2 – setting up a home office, learning Read more…

This week I’m going to look particularly at how parents can support young people during the current social isolation period. We might be used to our kids spending most of their time in their rooms, accessing their phones, staring into space, but without school to go to, we can feel guilty and irresponsible if they are doing it all the time. Above everything else, helping young people keep their mental health in a good place is Read more…

Like all of us, young people have been dramatically affected by social isolation. School closures happened pretty much overnight, GCSE and A-Level exams were cancelled, and social activities were suddenly banned. In modern society, it may seem like these changes are exactly what young people have been looking for: No school, a relaxed timetable (getting up mid-morning), and everything being driven by social media and accessible through their phones. But its probably a case of Read more…