The struggles of young people during the pandemic are something that has been overlooked. Not being able to go to school, see loved ones or even play outside with other children has had an enormous impact and lead to many children and young people struggling with feelings of anxiety and depression.
In a Young Minds report from January 2021, “75% of respondents agreed that they found the current lockdown harder to cope with than the previous ones, including 44% who said it was much harder. (14% said it was easier, 11% said it was the same).”
To show children and young people that they haven’t been forgotten and neither have their struggles, Spotlight created self-care packages. These packages started as a single idea and quickly grew.
Filled with goodies such as small toys, jars of hope and stationery – the packages went a very long way. Within a week, Spotlight had requests for over 1,000 packages to help young people with feelings of isolation from the change in their daily routine.
Alongside an army of volunteers, some driving as far as Portsmouth, hundreds of children have already received their boxes and, hopefully, feel a little less alone.
While we will hopefully see an end to the restrictions put in place this summer, we hope to try and expand on the project where possible. That is because feelings of isolation and loneliness can be felt for a variety of reasons.
As restrictions lift, we hope to see some of our other activities start again. These also aim to give children and young people relief from anxiety, isolation and instead give them support, confidence and friendship. These include our positive body programme, days out and a range of other activities to support young people and give them the best shot.
To find out more about our activities and how we help young people click here.