Young Adults Support Cafe

Key Group, Young Adults Support Café, came together after all 6 young people were in the same position of learning to cope with their mental health issues.

The six youngsters attended a Key session which aimed to provide a safe space for young people to meet where stigma, discrimination and bullying was not acceptable. The session is a great space for young people to access peer support and share the experiences of their own mental health problems.

After settling in to their safe and informal space, the Young Adults Support Group decided to join forces and participate in The Key Framework, choosing to do something good for others who are struggling with mental health problems.

The group decided they wanted to produce glitter jars for young people experiencing poor mental health and anxiety. The young adults had to use their skills to search for information to work up the cost of producing the glitter jars and how they would go about making them. The youngsters also pushed themselves to use their communication skills and seek advice from therapists and CAMHS workers to see whether they thought the glitter jars would be useful to young people receiving mental health support and therapy.  After a big ‘yes’ from practitioners the group headed to panel to pitch their idea.

The young people explained to the panel why they felt this project was important and how it could help others. They also talked about how The Key Framework had pushed them to step outside of their comfort zone and try things they wouldn’t normally. With such a successful panel, the group got the go ahead to do their project and make therapy glitter jars for others.

Together the young people created tons of 'Glitter Jars' to help promote positive mental health and emotional wellbeing in the region. The young adults from Durham have helped so many young people and have been a total to inspiration throughout.

Their Key Facilitator said “The Key Framework enabled the young people from the project to come together and plan and prepare a young person led project using their individual life experiences to produce a product that would benefit others who are going through similar circumstances.” The group have now progressed onto bigger and better things with two now involved in volunteering and 2 moving on to employment. Their Key project continues to be an inspiration for others and the glitter jars the young people created have been passed onto CAMHS and are encouraging other young people to use art as a coping therapy.