CYP Now - How one youth organisation is coping with lockdown

Youth First is a youth work mutual in Lewisham, south London. It delivers youth work support for Lewisham Council across 15 centres, all of which have been closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Mervyn Kaye is the chief executive of Lewisham's Youth First.

Here, Mervyn Kaye, chief executive of Youth First, explains how the organisation is adapting its support for young people.

“We’ve tried to think about what we deliver normally and do it virtually. We’ve taken a push and pull approach, so we’ve tried to meet kids where they are and have been using WhatsApp, YoutTube and Tik Tok and used Zoom for live interactive elements.

We’ve put up challenges such as 'bust a move' where a youth worker posts a dance move clip each week. We hope young people will pick that up and run with it so it gets a life of its own. We’ve been doing the same with online exercise classes and collective film watching using iPlayer. We’re going to start virtual youth club sessions next week. A youth worker will host a session and do activities like holding a debate or quiz or overseeing production of a podcast.

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