New Group Acts To Help The Homeless

Last week the National Team visited a new Group at Guardian Angels Parish in Bury to hear how they have been getting on in their first few months.

Despite only forming at the beginning on this year, the Group has already begun to take authentic Christian action to help raise awareness and funds to help local homeless people.

Following some initial enquiry about the work of Cornerstone - a Manchester-based Catholic Homeless Support Centre - the Group worked together to speak at Mass to raise awareness, approach businesses for donations and held a sponsored sleep out to raise money.

All in all the Group's efforts helped raise over £2000 for Cornerstone.

National Chaplain, Fr John Marsland, who visited Guardian Angels with Training and Development Worker, Marc Besford, commended the new Group for their efforts, saying: "It is fantastic to see another new Group developing their Christian leadership through the YCW method of SEE, JUDGE, ACT. Marc and I are looking forward to visiting again to see how the Group builds upon their impressive first months." 

Visit To YCW And IMPACT In Preston

Earlier this month, YCW Training and Development Worker, Marc Besford, visited Preston to catch up with all the groups and activities that are happening there.

To start off, St Bede's in Lytham St Annes put together a Youth Forum to bring together all four of their school's groups. Each group explained to the Forum what they had been doing, including a well-being questionnaire around the mental health of their peers. They also worked with another school - Our Lady's in Fulwood, Preston - to reach as many young people as possible.

Outside of YCW and IMPACT work, the groups help support CAFOD and have expanded a Respect Ambassadors programme with a focus on the issue of bullying and the harm this can cause to the mental health of young people.

In addition to this, Our Lady's Catholic High School have developed links with their local University by making films on environmental issues following discussion of this topic in their Groups.

Importantly, the Groups have also made links with their local parishes and other young people around the world. Being part of an international movement of young people, like the YCW, is a great opportunity to expand horizons and share realities. 

Following the visit, Marc Besford congratulated the work of the Groups in Preston saying: "It struck me that all the young people I met expressed the same feelings about what YCW and IMPACT means to them: building friendships, gaining confidence and instilling a real determination to act on issues that are close to them as young people.

Overall, I was really pleased to be able to meet so many inspirational young people who are committed to voicing the concerns of their peers and taking authentic Christian action on the big issues of the day."

Sandbach YCW IMPACT Group Praised For Refugee Sponsorship

Earlier in the year, the YCW National Training and Development Worker, Marc Besford, went to visit the Sandbach IMPACT Group to discuss their continuing action to support Refugees.

The Group have been raising money since last year to aid efforts for a Parish refugee sponsorship scheme, initiated by the IMPACT Group.

Their work has now been praised by the local Council who are also assisting the Parish in their efforts to host a refugee family in Sandbach.

If the application is successful, the Parish will provide housing for the family, access to medical and social services, English language tuition and support until they become self-sufficient. 

Marc Besford congratulated the Group saying: "The young member of Sandbach YCW IMPACT Group are a true inspiration. To have seen and judged the terrible plight of refugees around the world and taken such bold action, they embody the power of young people coming together to make a difference. Well done to them, their Chaplain, Fr Michael Morton and their Parish." 

MIND! The Gap Survey Results

Earlier this year the YCW launched our national consultation on Young People and Mental Health.

We were looking for young people across England and Wales to share their thoughts about the current state of mental health in our country, especially the reality for young people.

An overwhelming amount of our members expressed their deep concerns about the current help available to young people with mental health problems, as well as the stigma attached to it.

Because of this concern the YCW launched a National Action Campaign on mental health among young people, called MIND! The Gap.

The first stage focused around exploring the issue more deeply and finding out the opinions and experiences of young people. A key part of this was a short survey covering a variety of aspects around mental health.

The responses from this survey will be used to help guide our JUDGE stage of the campaign, running over the summer months, but for Mental Health Awareness Week we wanted to share just some of the insights from it.

HEADLINES

Of 1093 young people who responded:

42.5% said they had experienced a mental health issue personally.

61.8% said they had experienced a mental health issue with their friends, family or colleagues.

53.2% said they felt listened to when they spoke about their mental health issues.

31.1% of respondents, when asked to explain their understanding of mental health, described it in purely negative terms.

53.6% of those who had direct/indirect experience of mental health issues referenced "anxiety"; 45.7% "depression"; 17.3% "pressure/stress".

Loreto IMPACT and YCW Group Take Action on Human Trafficking

This week the YCW Training and Development Worker, Marc Besford, and National Chaplain, Fr John Marsland, went to visit Loreto Grammar School's IMPACT and YCW Group.

The young people at the All-Girls Catholic School have been exploring the issue of human trafficking over the school year, following a talk about it by Sr Imelda who talked about her experience of dealing with this in Albania.

As part of their Group work, the young people began by looking further into the topic during the SEE and JUDGE stage and decide that they wanted to take action around it.

Their first ACT was to raise wider awareness of human trafficking by speaking at their school assemblies. This was followed by some fundraising efforts to help support the work tackling it around the world and giving support to the victims of it.

Marc Besford commented on the work of the Loreto Group saying: "The girls at the school are a great example of how youth leaders can use the SEE, JUDGE, ACT method to tackle important issues. I was really impressed about how they worked together to raise awareness amongst their peers. I hope they will continue to successfully use the YCW method on other topics in future."

As well as their work on human trafficking, the Group have begun exploring the current YCW National Campaign on Mental Health called MIND! The Gap. They will be using some of the resources to look more deeply into this important topic.

Next Week is Mental Health Awareness Week

Hosted by the Mental Health Foundation, this year for Mental Health Awareness Week (14th-20th May), the focus will be on stress. Research has shown that two thirds of us experience a mental health problem in our lifetimes, and stress is a key factor in this.

The Mental Health Foundation ha said that: "By tackling stress, we can go a long way to tackle mental health problems such as anxiety and depression, and, in some instances, self-harm and suicide. We will be looking at how we can tackle stress and therefore help improve our mental health."

Currently, the YCW are running a National Campaign on mental health called MIND! The Gap and the results of our survey have highlighted stress as a big issue for young people, alongside anxiety and depression. We will be using mental health awareness week to feed back some of our findings, so keep an eye out for these updates.