Formartine Youth Project
Formartine Youth Project was established in 2013 by the mid-Formartine churches of Udny & Pitmedden, Tarves, Methlick and Barthol Chapel to help meet the needs of young people in this rural area by creating safe accessible places and opportunities for them to meet: Be themselves, develop relationships, feel they Belong and Believe in themselves. Be, Belong, Believe.
FYP coordinates a broad range of open access youth work activities, five youth groups, holiday clubs, targeted support groups and work closely with the local schools to support religious and moral education, pastoral care and general wellbeing. Through our range of activities coordinated by our youth worker and supported by a team of volunteers we regularly engage with around 700 young people and their families each year.
We are privileged to have a good relationship with our five local primary schools and support them in many ways. Our walk through ‘Nativity’ and ‘Holy Week’ experiences are fun to put on and very popular. We are fortunate to be involved in most end of term assemblies.
Our schools work to support wellbeing has been a key part of FYP activities recently at a time when resources and local services are being reduced. Demand is particularly high post covid, the repercussions of which on mental health particularly amongst young people has been well documented. In direct response to discussion with the local head teachers we have developed and run programs designed to provide important emotional support and strategies to build resilience, boost confidence and improve wellbeing particularly at ‘stressful’ times of change when moving from primary to secondary and periods of exams.
Through discussion and a variety of engaging activities our Transition Support Sessions for our P7 leavers are designed to explore thoughts and feelings about going to the academy, strategies for reducing anxiety, the people and support available and the importance of looking at change as a new opportunity.
The Emotional Rollercoaster Resource produced by Transforming Lives for Good (not on commission!) is a really good targeted support program that we ran over ten weeks for small groups of young people in the schools. Using the analogy of a rollercoaster the program explores emotional health and wellbeing, develops emotional awareness and looks at emotional first aid.
Our ‘Mini-Bridging’ sessions came about because the academy could not meet the level of demand for additional support of those finding the move to the academy particularly challenging. Run over a period of four weeks with some young volunteers offering peer support we met after school hours when the academy was quieter and did a scavenger hunt, followed a time table and answered questions allowing young people to become more familiar with their new environment, developing confidence and reducing anxiety considerably.
During the exam period we distributed 80 Study Support Bags containing some little sweet treats, resources and tips to manage exam anxiety. These were available in the local community and very popular – a great way to show you care.
The relationship between FYP and the schools isn’t always easy it can take time and perseverance to reach the member of staff who makes the decisions and opens doorways. We have found that being familiar with the Curriculum for Excellence (Scotland) and presenting activities/support against particular school targets and using appropriate language can make engagement much easier. Where possible try and get contact details for class teachers and cc them on communications to ensure offers of activities reach the right people. We ask our young people to evaluate our sessions/activities and then feedback to the school highlighting what they have gained and if they feel it would be beneficial to other year groups. This makes the possibility of running activites again much more likely, starts to build positive relationships and you can find yourself regularly welcomed into the term plan.
Any questions please email carolinefyp@outlook.com or follow us on social media for regular updates:
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