00:00Youth workers in the North East say they are seeing growing numbers of young people struggling
00:05with anxiety, confidence and mental health pressures. Charity NE Youth is highlighting
00:11the role youth clubs and outreach sessions play in supporting teenagers across the region,
00:17including projects in Wall's End, Barmore and Throckley.
00:20Yeah so NE Youth we're a regional youth working charity and we've been going for 91 years now,
00:25will be our 91st birthday this year and we do a lot of direct delivery and programs to support
00:30young people across the region and we also have a membership where last year we had over 240
00:36organisations a part of that we kind of put offers, events and support on so they can ultimately
00:41hopefully enhance their offer for their young people they work with. Our bread and butter,
00:46this is the things and the principles that kind of underpin the work we do and the support we put
00:49in for young people. Mental health isn't something that happens and goes and it's there, it exists,
00:54we all have mental health positive and negative experiences of it and what we do as youth work
00:59is support the young people that we work with to understand what mental health means.
01:03I think a lot of young people feel like there's a lot of pressure so there is pressure from school
01:10to be a certain way whether it's from their peers or academically and there's also pressure from social
01:17media. I think we talk about oh it's a highlight reel, it's not real life but then you're very easily
01:23subconsciously you'll see people doing all this different stuff or looking a certain way and as
01:28a young person if that's not your life you can compare yourself or think you're not good enough.
01:34You need to show that, show that you're willing, you're willing to help them, you're supporting them
01:39but it's also showing that it's a different dynamic, it's not a teacher-student relationship,
01:45you're not going to be telling them off because they're not going to do their maths homework.
01:48But overall it's a completely different relationship, it's more relaxed and I think
01:53that relaxed relationships and not having that pressure of also external things, I think it's
01:59really good to have a relationship like that with a trusted adult.
02:03Yeah, I think the big thing that I'm kind of identifying is the young people's lack of
02:07self-worth and self-belief. Young people these days don't actually know how incredible they are and this is
02:11what I think youth workers, it's our job to make them realise how incredible they are, right?
02:14You know, I think especially with how media sometimes is, it can portray quite negative
02:20connotations around young people and things that are kind of going on and the stories that happen,
02:24unfortunately there is a lot of tragic stories at the moment but where's all the good stories
02:27about young people, you know, where's all the highlighting stuff and the amazing things young
02:30people do kind of get involved with and what they're achieving and yeah, my job and this is
02:35what I do, what I hope I do every day is try and show young people their true work because
02:38they're incredible.
02:39National estimates suggest youth work contributes billions of pounds to the economy through improved
02:45health, education and employment outcomes. With more than a million young people across England
02:51classed as not in education, employment or training, organisations like Any Youth say demand
02:56for support is unlikely to ease anytime soon.
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