Our Lockdown Response

On Monday 23rd March 2020 we made the difficult decision to close our building in line with national Government guidelines. This was the first time in our 28 year history that we have closed our doors to our staff, volunteers and young women. We worked quickly to create a safe, adaptable approach so we could continue to support our young women during these uncertain and ever changing weeks and months.

We prioritised safe, face to face contact as many of the young women we work with are already socially isolated and they were anxious about being locked down and losing all of their support networks. We planned, prepared and hand delivered over 100 care packages every week. The care packages were different every week and had self care items, activity packs, baking ingredients and recipe cards, crafts and even things to share with siblings like footballs, kites and temporary tattoos. We consistently visited young women and their families at their doorsteps every week during lockdown and continued to visit some young women throughout the 6 weeks summer holidays. During that 4 month period we delivered approximately 2,500 care packages. Group work also continued using Zoom, Facetime and Facebook. Staff were each given a work mobile phone so we could call, text and use social media to connect with young women.

The positive response from our young women, their families and carers has been incredible and motivated the team to keep going, even through the hardest of weeks.