Charities partnered with YouthLink Scotland for the project
Young people’s charities have joined forces with the national agency for youth work to support jobseekers impacted by Covid-19.
Youth Scotland, Young Scot, LGBT Youth Scotland and YMCA Scotland all assisted in the creation of YouthLink Scotland’s Digital Youth Work Hub, a collection of resources for anyone working with and supporting young people in online spaces across the country.
Training, webinars and toolkits are available to explore key issues such as online safeguarding, digital privacy, and cybersecurity, while activities, wellbeing applications and gaming opportunities are signposted to help practitioners maintain meaningful engagement with young people on trusted platforms.
The launch comes as figures showed a 4,000% increase in demand for digital youth work after hundreds of thousands of young people were immediately cut off from vital local support due to lockdown restrictions.
Tim Frew, CEO of YouthLink Scotland said: “Youth work is about meeting young people where they are. For many young people during this pandemic, that place is online and it has been inspiring to see youth workers rapidly transform their services to ensure thousands of young people across Scotland get the vital support they need.
“This fab collection of digital youth work resources will enable youth workers to continue to support young people to overcome loneliness and isolation and engage in educational and fun activities both now and beyond Covid-19.”
Kerry Reilly, YMCA Scotland CEO, added: “We see digital youth work as so important for the future. We are seeing the advantages of helping young people from any and every background develop skills in coding and other Stem activities and we know this can have an impact on positive mental health, but also employability for the future.”
