Co-designing Emotional Wellbeing Activities
Developing better support structures for families
Young people and their families are under increasing strain, and there are a lack of spaces that facilitate building emotional support structures to protect mental health.
Drawing from the findings of our PAR project on Emotional Support for Young People, which explored young people’s emotional support needs during the cost of living crisis, we trialed a new approach to wellbeing. Co-designed with young people and local residents we organised a series of workshops for young people aged 14-22 and parents/guardians of young people. Read more from Mehjabin.
We are currently in phase two of the project, having completed a successful pilot programme.
Thank you for the amazing session yesterday. Even after a whole day at the office, I felt very energised and it was so lovely to do activities with the community together, something that hasn’t been around in a while.”
And I feel like these icebreakers are actually like fun. They’re not just about speaking, you get put into teams, you do things. You’re just in that position and just end up connecting with people without even intentionally like doing it.”
During the session, I feel like it’s quite productive, like whether it’s new faces or the same faces, I feel like I’m always learning something. And when you leave, I feel like everyone’s just, you’re left in a high and we’re all like, smiling as we go.”
But I think my main negative emotion is, like, stress. Like, work related stress, study related stress, so I think, from coming to these sessions, I think I mentioned it a lot, but like [it’s] a bit of a de-stress. I feel like it actually makes a very positive impact to my life. Because, like, when I have a clear mind and I’m like, speaking to people, you just automatically feel like you a raised, like, higher mood levels and stuff.”
“I think especially since because a lot of them [interactions with parents’ generation], it’s literally young person vs parents. So it can be more intimidating that way, but I think it’s been… that’s where I put the confidence, because I don’t know, it’s like, it’s not like a battle thinking, you know, when at home you’re speaking, and you’re just like the young person vs parents, and it’s like, there’s always negative stuff, but I feel like here it was quite supportive, and everyone built on everyone’s ideas, and confidence as well with opportunities.”
I think it’s more of a de-stressor, like, after like, a very long stressful day, like, I want to come here and, like, connect with people and just like, have fun and joy. And I think in terms of, yeah, so that even, like, for days I have, like, I know I’m coming to Toynbee Hall. I like, wake up 10 minutes earlier to get into work 10 minutes earlier so I can leave earlier [and come to the session]”
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