Hi all
To celebrate the end of the year, Young Leaders and Muddy Paws volunteers recently took part in a Zoom Christmas party hosted by Trevor and Maxine. We all enjoyed pizza and a Christmas themed quiz – with prizes of course!
On the 10 September, Caoimhe led a Vision Workshop with Young Leaders to plan for 2021. We decided that our focus for the upcoming year will be on developing our leadership skills, peer mentoring, and undertaking training in areas such as health and social care, mental health and youth work.
We continue to receive new volunteer applications from the community for Muddy Paws. A big welcome goes to our most recent newcomers – Cathy, Christine, Vanja and Nada – who have been a paw-fect fit for Muddy Paws. On 19 November, Muddy Paws volunteers enjoyed attending mentoring training facilitated by both Wellbeing’s Volunteer Coordinator, Amy, and Trevor. It was a great opportunity for Led By You to promote mentoring opportunities in MACS and for potential mentors to become volunteers in Muddy Paws.
Aisling from the Lady Fatima Charitable Trust came to MACS to visit some of the Young Leaders (Eve, David, Mya and Caoimhe) to hear about some of the work we have been doing with the funding received. The Lady Fatima Trust have kindly covered costs such as training, travel, and peer mentoring costs for Young Leaders and we’re really grateful for their support.
Led By You’s Anti-Racism group published an infographic based on the findings of our survey on racism towards young people in Northern Ireland. All survey respondents reported that they have experienced some form of racism and the vast majority felt that society isn’t doing enough to tackle it. The Young Leaders have taken this feedback on board and are now in the process of planning an anti-racism programme for schools – the place where young people are most likely to experience racism. We hope that this programme will challenge young people’s internalised prejudices and give them the tools to stand up to racism whenever they experience or witness it.
Caoimhe and Robbie also carried out a survey to find out how young people have found the support from MACS during the pandemic and what more can MACS do to help. The survey found that loneliness, isolation, significant dips in mental health, and financial worries were the biggest impact of lockdown. The young people also asked that MACS’ staff continue to work with them both virtually and face-to-face. While it’s great to see each other in person, many young people have found meeting with workers on Zoom to be beneficial and they hope that this will continue after the pandemic.
Trevor facilitated a consultation with Young Leaders and other young people across MACS services took part in a consultation with the National Children’s Bureau on developing a new Mental Health Charter for young people. A stark piece of feedback was that young people feel they often aren’t seen as being “suicidal enough” or in enough distress to be taken seriously. This has been fed back to the National Children’s Bureau and will lead to changes in how mental health services are run – thank you to everyone who took part.
Since the last blog, sadly we’ve had to say goodbye to Caoimhe and Robbie. Caoimhe’s Time to Shine post has come to end and she has achieved so much in her time with us – the time has truly flown by! We wish her every success moving forward and we are truly grateful to the Rank Foundation and The Big Lottery for the opportunity to give a Young Leader a paid post. Watch this space – we will be definitely be applying again in the future.
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Young Leaders, young people, staff and volunteers in Led By You and MACS Muddy Paws,
