A Helping Hand – “Thank You For Everything You Have Done”
Frustrated and stuck at home during lockdown, Isaac* was already struggling to get along with his brother when his family fell apart. His parents announced they were separating.
Needing to talk to someone outside the family to help him cope, he signed up for Matrix Digital Youth Support Sessions. Talking to friends wasn’t an option, they just don’t talk about that kind of thing, but having met a Matrix Youth Worker in school before he knew he could share his feelings easily with them, and that they could be trusted.
His Youth Worker provided a sounding board to help him work through his feelings and encouraged him to use a journal to express himself. A few sessions in it became apparent that he didn’t feel able to talk to his Mum about all that was going on, so taking things gently, Isaac and his Youth Worker processed together how he could open up more to his Mum. All these things added together gave him the space, time and tools he needed to not only cope with the situation but to change how he felt and responded to it.
When circumstances changed rapidly again towards the end of lockdown Isaac turned to his Youth Worker to help him process how to deal with the new situation, helping him regulate his emotions more effectively.
Towards the end of lockdown, we received this message from Isaac’s Mum: ‘Thank you so much for everything you have done for Isaac we really appreciate it…I know he’s enjoyed his chats with you thank you again for everything.’
We are so thankful to the Community Foundation for Surrey, National Lottery and generous individual donors who made it possible for us to reach out to Isaac and many more during lockdown.
We are currently upgrading our systems and training more team to ensure we can continue to provide Youth Support Sessions both digitally and face-to-face. If you would like to support us with a donation just follow the link below.
*Name changed for privacy