The summer holidays are here! No more school until September and although many of the young people we support have been completing schoolwork and lessons at home, they can look forward to a few weeks off and a break from school. Sadly, that also means a break from the Sycamore Trust youth clubs, which have been continuing in virtual form throughout the past four months.
Sycamore staff, led by Sue Cornell and Steve Dixon, have continued to operate the youth clubs with regular weekly meetings using video technology. We started by inviting all the young people to a weekly chat and it proved so popular that we eventually split the clubs back into their regular groups and reverted to their normal early evening times.
The Mayor's of London funded groups take place on a Wednesday and a Thursday evening and we've continued to offer these clubs. For some of the young people, the idea of a video call is quite challening, but in the main, our members have participated with enthusiasm.
Activity leader Sue Cornell said, "We've enjoyed the virtual meetings, but there's no substitute for seeing your friends in person. As soon as it's safe, we're really looking forward to seeing everyine again at thre youth clubs."
And just because it's the summer, it doersn't mean that we won't have any contact with our members. Parents have been invited to have their children attend a weekly video meeting throughout the summer, and we'll soon be announcing news of our summer activity programme. on top of that, in a months time we'll be at Stubbers so it's set to be a busy summer. We're just hoping for good weather!