Northampton youth service launches DJing lessons and counselling to help 'young people struggling with the lockdown'

A Northampton youth and community team have risen to the challenges of the coronavirus outbreak by taking youth work online.

Free2Talk's youth team normally work in the community supporting Northampton’s most disadvantaged young people and families.

But when it became clear that social distancing would be needed for some time, the team at Free 2 Talk knew they needed to think quickly to make sure that young people could still access support.

Now, they are offering one-to-one support through phone calls, texts, emails and video apps, and are still able to provide DJing tuition, music production lessons and even run a youth community radio station online.

Director and youth worker Jodie Low said: “The current situation is a massive challenge for young people. Adolescence is a time when young people are developing their identity by breaking away from family and taking risks into independence. The lockdown stops this natural development in its tracks. Instinctively they need to be with their peers so it is essential that we offer a safe option”.

Connor Osborn, youth support worker and music tutor at Free 2 Talk, spoke of the innovative variety of content available through online group sessions: "We hope that our offering will provide distraction and fun throughout this difficult time. We are working on more options and will keep going for as long as we need to.

"It’s been tough, as with any new digital project, the development and testing is so time consuming. But having young people and parents thank us for what we are doing makes it all worthwhile. We all really miss having face to face contact with the young people though and we can’t wait to get back to working with them in person, although the online options will continue and hopefully help us to reach more young people.”

With a Youtube channel and music broadcasting platform about to launch, Free 2 Talk are now taking referrals for mentoring and music education.

Jodie said: "If you know children aged 8-11 or young people 12-18 that are struggling with their lockdown, this could be just what they need. Email [email protected] to get involved.

"Our funders have been so flexible and supportive of the work we are doing to maintain services. We would like to say a huge thank you to Northampton Borough Council, The Home Office, Northamptonshire Community Foundation, Youth Music, Big Lottery and all of our local donors.”