Isak and Willow report back from the Stroud area team:

“The past few weeks have been busy for us in Stroud, Stonehouse and Rodborough. We have been running a mix of outdoor social, indoor study, and detached youthwork sessions.

In our outdoor sessions, we set out a perimeter fence for our session to take place inside of. We then measure spaces 2m apart and mark where young people and staff can sit with our brand new (wipe clean) cushions. The young people have been amazing at keeping to and reminding their peers about the social distancing measures.

As well just sitting and chatting young people have come up with lots of great activities for sessions, including; mask decorating, bin bag fashion styling and recently, they even got involved in one of our The Door Tries videos! Search “The Door Tries Cookie Decorating” on our YouTube page.

At the start of the summer we were delighted to be asked to go out and about in Rodborough by the local council. This area is new to us and it was so exciting to have 15 young people from the local school come along to one of our first sessions. Although we had never met them before, they engaged so well, we played social distanced games such as “splat” and “wink murder”. These young people also helped to plan the next session, and came up with the idea of a balloon pop! Isak and I are currently purple in the face from blowing up balloons with wrapped sweets inside, ready for the session!”

In Stonehouse we have learned that for this community of young people there is more benefit from a detached youthwork approach,  so instead of waiting for young people to book in for sessions,  the team have ventured out an about to meet them where they are. One week in Stonehouse we managed to engage with over 35 young people in a single hour!

Through this work we have been able to learn the patterns and hot-spots of our young people and encourage them to come along to weekly indoor study sessions (4 participants max) if they need it.

We have also been meeting with a dedicated group of young people who, with guidance from Iask and George, are planning out the painting of part of the youth centre (the container), an idea that came from the young people and we are helping to make happen.

It has been so encouraging watching our young people embrace this new change, and make the most of the time we have, whist keeping in mind the limitations. We are looking forward to continuing to grow with them.”

Kathleen and Sam for the Dursley area add:

“Even with a pandemic it’s been a busy summer for us in Cam, Dursley and Wotton. Carrying on from it’s success in the spring we have continued our detached work, out and about with our local PCSO’s and with other members of The Door Team. This has enabled us to keep young people up to date with new activities on offer at The Door and helped us keep in touch with young people that are on the outskirts of our usual delivery. We’ve had loads of great conversations about mental health with young people and have given them somewhere to share their voice amongst the confusion.

As in the Stroud area we have offered a variety of socially distanced outdoor youth club sessions and indoor study sessions. These have included a cinema day lots of bring your own picnics and thanks to the generous support of Abi from Quarry Chapel, lots of great arts and craft sessions too. Young people have been able to try sewing, clay models and even build their own table football game.

We have also been piloting indoor youth club sessions with restricted numbers (maximum of 10). These sessions have gone really well, being able to give young people back their safe space has been amazing. We were even able to host a socially distanced goodbye party for  Flo as she is off to University. 

Also in the team we have been pleased to welcome back our volunteers Jen and Karen to sessions after a long lockdown break”