Young carers have been meeting up over the last 5 weeks to discuss topics including, Body image, Self-talk, Social Media, Body Hair, Periods, and influencers.
The initial part of the workshop ran online, we then invited young carers to attend a face to face meet up at The Mix in Stowmarket. The group enjoyed a day together including a ‘charity shop challenge’, a quiz and pancakes at ‘Petit Pancakes’. The main focus on the day was looking at who influences them whether it be historic role models or people they look up to in their lives now. We paid tribute to famous women including Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou , Madam CJ Walker and Anne Frank by creating a mood board of their legacies. We also had celebrities such as Adele and Mimi Webb who were a couple of influential role models to the young people including one young carers mum.
Feedback from the sessions:
What have you enjoyed about the sessions.
- All of it! But some of the topics were a little awkward to talk about
- I liked how we all met up in the end and got to know each other, the online sessions helped me to build my confidence to allow me to come and see everyone face to face
- I enjoyed meeting everyone
One thing you have learnt from these sessions
- ‘’don’t judge people’’
- ‘’what role models are and how they can influence you and your choices’’
- ‘’being yourself and not letting people knock you down because you are perfect the way you are’’
We spoke about how the topics were awkward for some of the young people to have, but that by creating the space and confidentiality to talk about them has improved their understanding on the topics. We also established what makes a good friend and how to assert healthy boundaries with people including the time and space to talk about these topics. We hope that by creating this space has enabled the young carers to feel more confident in being open-minded and challenging societies expectations.
