Now that schools are closed, what will Soulscape be doing for the next few months?

Our commitment to young people isn’t on hold! We exist to look after their mental wellbeing, and that is needed now more than ever.

Stuck at home, our young people are now dealing with the shock of having their all-important exams cancelled, the stress of being isolated from their friends, anxiety about health and their elderly relatives, and perhaps having to deal with difficult family relationships 24/7. Online, they’re being bombarded with a lot of (sometimes scary) information.

Making space online

Their lives have gone online – so we’re doing the same. We’re publishing a weekly vlog where our youth worker discusses some of the challenges of isolation, and ways to stay well mentally and physically.

We’re also running a new creative project called CARE, addressing young people’s anxieties and passions about the climate crisis. While schools are closed, we’re trialling this project remotely, via video link with a small group of 20 students from St Crispin’s School.

Year 6 students are in a particularly challenging situation, with uncertainty about whether they will return their primary schools before they leave them forever. The Y6-Y7 transition is something that Soulscape is heavily involved with in the Wokingham area, through our massive Mind the Gap project.

This year, it’s all very different. Induction days at the Year 6’s chosen secondary schools are unlikely to go ahead, so we are working with both primary and secondary schools to bring aspects of our Mind the Gap workshops and induction sessions to this year group remotely and in new, different ways.

How can you help Soulscape?

We don’t know what’s going to happen in the next few months. We want to keep on being there for Berkshire’s young people during this anxious time, but we’ll have fewer opportunities to raise funds for our work in person.

If you’d like to help, any donations would make a big difference to what we can do over the coming months! Click here for our donation page. Many thanks for your support.