CHARITIES have come together to help young people deal with the impact of loneliness, stress, and anxiety throughout lockdown.

Wolvercote Young People’s Club and The Leys Community Development Initiative [CDI] have come together to offer a programme of live online youth activities and support, to deliver the closest possible thing to a youth club throughout lockdown.

The initiative, called Creatively Clever, will support young people across Oxford, including those in Wolvercote, Cuttleslowe, and Blackbird Leys.

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The project is designed to meet the specific needs of young people throughout the pandemic.

Live-streaming will take across social media platforms to enable young people to get involved with youth workers.

Sessions will include taking part in online cooking lessons or working with youth workers who will answer young people’s questions on a wide range of topics.

The project is aimed at those young people aged eight to eighteen.

Sasha East, chair of the board of trustees at Leys CDI, said: “We have been working with Wolvercote Young Peoples Club since March last year.

“We started our first round of Creatively Clever throughout April, May June, and July, and now here we are doing it again.

“Last night we had an online cooking workshop.

Young people made barbecue chicken and macaroni cheese.

"We had some great photographs of the food sent in, and great feedback saying the food was tasty.”

The youth workers are also running food drop-offs, socially distanced doorstep visits, and socially distanced walks to help those who feel isolated.

Telephone conversations will also be available for any young people that want to speak one-to-one to youth workers, to help support their emotional health and wellbeing.

Ms East added: “Today we are hosting an artwork shop.

“We have been delivering packs of art material and food to young people, there’s a clay workshop happening on Saturday.

“This is different from school, it is fun, it is people’s choice to get involved, and it is a way for us to still run activities for young people, throughout these difficult times.

Young people are being encouraged to sign up and choose from the live workshops on offer.

Workshops available currently include discussion sessions, poetry, and creative writing classes, body combat fitness classes, live performances, as well as gaming and online quizzes.

Creatively Clever is working in partnership with Oxford Food Bank.

The project includes food drops twice a week and a weekly mystery food box challenge.

The initiative is aiming to improve young people’s mental health throughout this period when they are having to isolate away from friends, who they would usually see.

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Ms East said: “I think it is extremely important to continue doing online workshops, and it helps people coping with this situation.

“It is really difficult for young people, who most of the time like to be out with their friends, to have to be inside so much.

“It is so good that CDI can work in partnership with Wolvercote Young People’s Club. We can share our resources to do this.”

The chair added: "Between September and December we were doing detached youth work, and we are looking forward to doing that again when we are able to."

According to the Mental Health Foundation, teenagers’ mental health is undergoing ‘severe pressure’ as the pandemic continues.

In its survey based on 2,395 British teenagers, aged 13-19, 27 per cent of British teenagers surveyed said they felt ‘nervous, anxious or on edge’ most or nearly all the days of the previous fortnight.

26 per cent of British teenagers surveyed said they had had trouble concentrating on things like schoolwork, reading and watching TV, most or nearly all the days of the previous fortnight.

32 per cent of teenagers said they found themselves 'easily annoyed or irritable'.

All of these experiences can be related to anxiety or depression, although having them does not amount to a formal diagnosis.

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The survey also found that teenagers whose parents are unemployed are dramatically more likely to report these experiences associated with anxiety and depression.

Creatively Clever hopes to help tackle these issues by providing activities for young people over lockdown.

The two charities aim to provide the closest thing possible to a youth club in these times of lockdown restrictions.

To book a workshop or a food parcel delivery visit www.wolvercoteypc.org.uk

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