In November 2021, we strengthened the Family Welfare team with the appointment of our fantastic Youth Worker, Dan Zahler, on a year-long secondment. With his background in youth work and listening to young people’s voices, Dan is helping us to understand more about what young people want and need from our services.
Through our Youth Steering Group, we consider mental health matters from a young person’s perspective. This post outlines what they’ve told us and how they’re helping us to shape our future service provision.
Creating a Youth Steering Group
Dan set up our Youth Steering Group to guide us in developing the concept of a mental health cafe. Dan’s challenge was to recruit 15 members to represent all the different communities that young people in Wigan and Leigh feel part of.
With representatives from Young Carers, the Youth Cabinet, social care, the BAME community, sport, health and wellbeing, local schools and colleges, we have a truly diverse and committed steering group.
Shaping the Comfort Cafe
The first project Dan consulted the steering group on was naming our mental health cafe and shaping the activities, services and menu we would deliver. Young people told us they wanted it to be a place where they could relax and feel at ease. We listened and have delivered. The Comfort Cafe launched at the start of February 2022. Read more about it here.
Dan says,
“Our priority is to listen to young people’s voices so they can guide us and shape the services the Comfort Cafe provides. They’ve played a really important role, firstly in naming it and also in telling us what they want from the space. As a result of our conversations and with support from the Youth Inspiration Fund, our steering group created the Comfort Corner in the cafe; an enclosed safe space with games and activities. I’m so proud of what they’ve achieved together so far.”
Guiding our youth events programme
Having played an instrumental role in setting up the Comfort Cafe, our Youth Steering Group has moved on to developing a monthly events programme. This will see a series of events and celebrations for young people taking place in the Cafe. The events will bring together young people from different backgrounds across the Borough with the aim of celebrating differences and starting conversations. Each one will encourage young people to open themselves up to new ideas and experiences and learn about different cultures.
Dan suggested the group start by considering issues and events that were close to their hearts, and matters that were important to them and their peers.
They looked at the calendar to see what was coming up during the first quarter of 2022 and discussed all kinds of seasonal activities, settling on three key themes: Chinese New Year, LGBTQ+ awareness month and Young Carer’s Action Day in March. After deciding on these, they brainstormed ideas and came up with all kinds of fun and interesting activities linked to the themes. The group also discussed ways to link events in with other local community groups, musicians and performers.
Celebrating difference and raising awareness
Our calendar of young people’s events kicked off in early February with celebrations for the Chinese New Year of the Water Tiger. Activities included dressing the cafe with lantern decorations, a Chinese tasting menu using chopsticks, and screenings of Kung Fu films.
Throughout February the Comfort Cafe will be dressed in flags and bunting to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community, with plans for face painting, rainbow cakes and a bold and beautiful fashion show.
The group also has big plans for Young Carer’s Action Day on 16 March. Keep an eye on our social feeds for details of what’s happening and how to get involved.
The steering group follows a four-week plan designed by Dan. They meet weekly in the Comfort Cafe. Week one is focused on planning, week two is when the event or activity is delivered, week three is for relaxing and gaming, and week four is all about celebrating success and the group’s contributions.
A snowy celebration
A fine example of celebrating success took place just before Christmas 2021. To acknowledge the Youth Steering Group’s work, we took 15 young people to experience an outdoor snow extravaganza at Manchester’s Trafford Centre. They enjoyed acrobatic displays in the Big Top, experienced a snow storm and tried their luck at ice skating. It was wonderful to see young people from such diverse backgrounds coming together to celebrate and form new friendships.
Thanks to our close links with Spinner’s Mill, future celebrations will include cultural trips to shows at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre, including six trips a year for isolated and vulnerable young people.
That’s a whistle-stop tour of our Youth Steering Group’s input to date. We’ve no doubt there will be lots more success to celebrate in the near future. Keep an eye on our social feeds for details of our young people’s events programme, and if you’d like to get involved, drop Dan a line at dzahler@familywelfare.co.uk.