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This year, we’re celebrating 25 years of Soulscape! Looking back… 25 years ago, we weren’t called Soulscape – we were just a single youth worker (and then a couple more) sent by local churches to run lunchtime drop-in sessions at local schools. Even then we had a desire to create space for young people to stop, reflect, express themselves and explore life. The lunch club (‘Random’) was appreciated by schools in Wokingham and they soon shared other needs with us. It wasn’t long before we started our Mind the Gap project, helping Year 6 students with the transition to secondary school. As our vision grew, we formed the Soulscape charity, enabling us to get more projects off the ground. We were [...]

With a new Year 7 cohort safely settled into secondary school, Soulscape's Michelle McLeish reflects on this year's Mind the Gap project. Mind the Gap remains one of my favourite projects. It’s a project that is easy to get involved with and really valued by students and staff. We've had to adapt Mind the Gap over the past two years thanks to the pandemic. But we're so grateful that it's gone ahead! Last year, I delivered all our Year 6 workshops by videolink. This year we got to do them in person again, but 2021 was still a little different. "Mind the Gap explained lots of things to us about secondary school and they eased my worries. I am looking [...]

For the past year, Soulscape has been mentoring 18 individual young people at Wokingham primary and secondary schools. Meeting for a one-to-one mentoring session each week, these young people have grown in confidence and appreciated having somebody who is simply there to listen to them – whatever’s on their mind. Our mentors are specially-trained volunteers with a great rapport with young people. Neither teacher nor parent, they can play a unique role as another trusted adult who values, accepts and invests in them. “I think it’s really important for all young people to feel they have someone they can talk to,” says one of our mentors. “Every young person deserves a champion – someone who makes time to listen to [...]

View the final artwork from More Inside Out Year 6 students from across the Wokingham area have been busy preparing some amazing artwork at our More Inside Out project. Now their final pieces are ready for you to see. They invite you to take ten minutes out of your day to explore their virtual exhibition.  You can press the "fullscreen" button below the book to view the pieces larger. More Inside Out - An Online Exhibition The young people have used exciting new art techniques that they learned at the project workshops to express something about their emotions, characters and the community they forged during the project. We had a brilliant time with More Inside Out. We hope you enjoy the exhibition, [...]

See the students' inspiring artwork online