Returning to the 'real-world' this autumn

Music and mentoring

Our Youth Club’s blend of virtual and face-to-face summer programmes were well-attended, but as soon as possible, we returned to face-to-face sessions three evenings a week in the autumn. We continue to see more new faces that are keen to make use of the music studio, take part in physical activities and engage with mentoring support.

Recognising some of emerging issues young people were facing from the pandemic, we set up an additional programme of Music & Mentoring on Wednesday evenings for 10 weeks, funded by RBKC, which welcomed 44 young people during the project and provided 121 face-to-face mentoring and support.

Girls only

Through our partnership at the North Kensington Youth Collective (which includes RPT, Harrow Club, Dalgarno Trust and London Sports Trust), we have been able to re-start our girls only Project Athena at RBKC’s North Youth Hub (Lancaster Youth Club) on Tuesday evenings. This is open to girls aged 11-19 and includes a variety of activities such as dance, cooking and hairdressing. This club also has an outdoor space, which we hope to utilise with netball and football sessions with the help of volunteer support.

Junior Club

We’re continually revaluating the safety of our programmes line with government guidance. Although our Junior Club remains closed as we continue to support local primary schools to maintain ‘bubbles’, many of our regular Junior Club members have been engaging with our growing Homework Club, allowing us to continue our support for them. We hope to resume this programme as soon as possible next year. 

Reconciling differences

This year, RPT’s youth team undertook mentoring training to support young people to achieve their short, medium and long-term aspirations. This case study illustrates the impact this has had:

“19-year-old Zara* is at a university in London and lives with her family in North Kensington. Coming from a different culture and religion, one of the challenges for her was how to reconcile her family cultural and religious values with the culture in which she has been brought up in the UK. Zara wanted to have a better understanding of who she is as a person to help her plan her life more effectively. 

During our first session, Zara was very quiet and unsure of her surroundings, overwhelmed by the idea of discussing herself and her emotions. However, with each passing week, we built a good rapport by creating a safe zone to speak freely. This allowed us to address the issues Zara was facing both at home and in her personal relationships.

At our last session, Zara said that without the support of her mentor, she doesn’t think she would have had the information and skills needed to find solutions to her problems. She was immensely grateful for the toolkit that she has built, which will support her throughout her life and allow her to support others.”

*name changed to protect privacy

16th October 2020