Each year Valleys Kids works with around 2,400 disadvantaged and vulnerable young people.  They have been hit hard by the lockdown restrictions.  No respite from sometimes, stressful and fraught family life cooped up with no escape or social interaction with their peers.  They miss their friends, they miss the social activities they usually attend at Valleys Kids each week.
During the pandemic we continued to support young people as best we could.

Virtual Youth sessions:   327
Youth Packs provided:   199

We were able to provide iPads to families, who had no means of connecting to the internet, supporting them to ensure they could speak to relations in isolation and helping children to keep up with virtual school lessons.

Sparc, our youth arts project, worked digitally with our teenagers running virtual groups online and offering a weekly opportunity to talk together and respond collectively to this crisis. Become a Friend on Sparc Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/wearesparc/

Check out these films made by young people from all our hubs and in Riverside as part of the UK wide CoronaVirus TimeCapsule Project:

Week 1 – The Beginning 

Week 2 – Home Life 

Week 3 – About Us

“This space is very important, not just for me, but for everyone. It gives us opportunities to be able to talk to people, especially for people who suffer with anxiety, depression or disabilities. It keeps us sane and our feelings whole and warm. It gives us a place to grow as a person.”    Young person attending online group

For younger kids we provided 3,469 Play Packs to give them some fun activities at home, but also help relieve some of the tensions that are building up. If you have kids stuck at home, you will know what this means. If you have autistic kids or you are a single parent with 4 kids, it can seem overwhelming.  We were fortunate to have UNA Exchange student volunteers working hard to keep the kids busy and creative.