Virtual Youth Hangout - Work experience feedback

My time at ReflecTeen so far has been the silver lining of a strange University term. The resilience shown by both the organisers of the sessions and the young people who attend is phenomenal and very inspiring. All who attend the 5pm Friday youth hangout are keen to get involved with discussions and share their ideas with the group. The young people all listen when one another are speaking and stay engaged with the session until the end.

The average number of young people in the sessions I attended was around 20, and I was very impressed with how smoothly things ran considering that the sessions are currently being ran virtually due to Covid-19, and so each young person is in their own space, possibly even  surrounded by distractions during the sessions. The topics covered so far; for example the importance of self discipline, have been thought provoking and the contributions made by the young people have been of an excellent quality. You can tell listening to the young people that they know their input is going to be heard and valued, and above that you can tell that they are really understanding and interacting with the topics each week. 

In summary, I feel extremely lucky to have secured a volunteering place at the organisation, which as well as being full of so much wisdom from the organisers and young people, is also filled with so much love and trust which I could feel from the first session I attended. I really have thoroughly enjoyed each session so far and I am excited to continue.

Jasmine Mitchell-Hardy, December 2020