The last 12 months have been especially tough for parents with young children. Viva’s Charlotte Pearson-Miles shares the stories of two individuals, and the larger-scale collaborative impact of a new Early Years Network in Oxfordshire. I’d like to frame this story with two sets of neighbours. Neighbours with young children. The first family moved in […]
Tag: Doorsteps
Lie low to the wall
As lockdown drags on and deepens, Youth worker Hannah Woods says we all need to create safe spaces for ourselves and our loved ones. As we started Lockdown 3.0, I was filled with so many emotions (I’m sure we all were!) Then school closures were announced. Anxiety, fear, claustrophobia – the thought of home schooling […]
The Spaceship is the Best Bit
BY HANNAH WOODS January – tis’ the season to restart youth groups after the Christmas break! A faithful 15 year-old, now in his third year of the Find Your Fire (FYF) project, and his second year as a young leader, messaged checking a session time. As I replied, I outlined the term plan and asked […]
Zoom youth work takes off
Hannah Woods writes about how our Oxford-based partner network’s experiences of virtual youth work have gone global and led to greater collaboration than ever expected. “The impact of the pandemic on some children and young people will be far-reaching, and it will be essential that the right services are there to support them. The crisis […]
There but for the Grace of God
Young people at university in the UK are facing significant mental health issues under coronavirus lockdown. Charlotte Pearson-Miles shares sad news about someone she knew, and reflects on her own struggles as a student and the way out she found in the words of Jesus. Prayer days, outdoor services and light displays will have taken […]
Known and accepted
BY CHARLOTTE PEARSON-MILES One unexpected silver lining of moving our Oxford-based youth work online has been the greater contact we’ve had with parents (who have had to fill out parental consent forms and help children access our Zoom groups safely). Pre-lockdown, much of Doorsteps’ youth work took place via school. We were well placed to […]
Longing
By Lucy Hefford Longing. Ever read the news or listened to a friend mourn the situation they find themselves in and think; ‘it just seems so hopeless’? I have – and some of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for the lives of children around the world can feel hopeless too. Missing months of schooling, […]
To Be Known and Accepted
TBK (To Be Known) is the name of Doorsteps Youth’s group exploring the Christian way of life which, like many of our groups, has adapted to run via Zoom. We wanted to provide continuity and support for young people through the stresses of lockdown. One silver lining of moving our youth work online has been […]
Creativity & Wellbeing
In this blog post we start with the dragons, but sadly they’re not as prevalent as they should be. The rest goes on to talk about how useful play is. GK Chesterton writes: Fairy tales are more than true – not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons […]
Supporting Oxford’s young people in lockdown
BY HANNAH WOODS The pre-teen and early teenage years – particularly those aged 9-14 – are a period of massive growth and development within the brain. Young people perceive risks differently during this time, and therefore respond to risks differently. Assessing the risks posed by the coronavirus will therefore be a different type of challenge […]