This weekend I went to my first ever Youth Voice Event, it was fantastic. We had different workshops we could do as well as playing games and doing team building activities.

The first Workshop I did was from a person who works for Fixers. Fixers help young people who want to spread a message about something important to them in a positive way. For example topics could be about mental health, disability and road safety.  Fixers then works with the young person to create content they can use to help spread their message; for example animations, documentaries and music videos.

We were split into groups and we had to put cards that said something about what challenges young people can face into order of importance to us. This was very interesting as we all had different views. Some example of the cards was domestic violence, knife crime and substance abuse.

In our groups we then had to brainstorm ideas of if we made a video what topic would we chose. After this we then made our own personal videos to be put on Twitter.

My Twitter Video.

My next workshop was all about Mental Health. We discussed how when you talk to others your tone and body language can change depending on each other’s emotions. We also discussed statements read to us and we had to decide if we agreed with the statement or not. We then wrote our own pledges on card and put them all over the tree. My pledge was to ask my family and friends how they were feeling and how their days been. This is something the charity Time To Change came up with.

In our last workshop we talked about all the different types of services young people could access and if we had heard of these services or even used one.

We did an activity were we had to make a wall out of marshmallows, we then threw sweets at it. No groups marshmallow wall feel down, we did the activity to represent the marshmallows as the services we could use and we were the sweets trying to access the services however it is very hard for young people to access services and it takes a long time.

After the workshops we had burgers, hot dogs and ice cream we also listened to music played by a DJ.

The day was absolutely brilliant I learned lots, felt like I could help make a difference, had a great time with friends and made some more lovely new friends too!

A few months ago I went for my first sleepover at the supported living place I hope to move into.  Closer to the time I wrote another blog post about this but now I have moved to using word press instead, so I have decided to write it again.

On Tuesday evening I had my first sleepover night at   the supported living place I hope to move into. I was nervous to see what staying the night there would be like.

The Nerves 

Throughout the day I was feeling very anxious, stressed, worried and scared. I wasn’t sure what would happen. I was anxious because I hadn’t seen my care plan, I wasn’t sure if the staff at the place would not know what to do if i had a seizure or if I got my hands on anything I could harm myself with.

Luckily I saw my care coordinator during the day they were very good at helping me to calm down. I was also anxious because I had thoughts buzzing  in my head at 100 miles an hour ” What if they don’t have my living aids I need”.  As well as this not very long before the sleepover I had chosen my bedrooms curtains but I wasn’t sure if they would have arrived on time.

On The Way 

On the way to the house I felt scared and sick.  It felt like I had dozens of butterfly’s in my stomach. I wasn’t sure if i wanted to stay the night because I had felt so stressed about it earlier the same day.

Arriving 

When I arrived at the house I saw my room. My parents and the staff were good at trying to make me feel a bit more relaxed and not so anxious. My parents and I still hadn’t seen the care plan but I enjoyed seeing what I needed to get for my room and thinking about colour themes ideas. I decided to stay the night.

Night Into Morning 

The night was ok it went better than I expected , I had staff come and check on me throughout the night and support me when I had a seizure. My parents said they would collect me if needed but I stayed the whole night.  In the morning I felt alright so had breakfast then went to college.

When I saw my family I told them how it went.

I’m glad I did it despite all the feelings beforehand.