Young people at Rainbows celebrate International Youth Day

Young people who are offered support from Rainbows are celebrating International Youth Day.

International Youth Day, on August 12, gives an opportunity to celebrate and mainstream young peoples’ voices, actions and initiatives – an ethos adopted by our hospice. 

As part of our holistic care, we offer youth work support to those aged 13 and over from across the East Midlands. 

Stacey Curzon, Rainbows Youth Worker, said: “Youth work is about supporting the young people to achieve their ambitions, whilst their journeys may be different to others it is still important to recognise that they have the right to learn and develop, to have a voice and to experience life. It is also about being a resource to share information, to advocate, signpost and to build confidence as well as offering different types of support depending on their needs. My role at Rainbows is to ensure exactly that. 

“In my journey as a Youth Worker I have met some amazing young people and my learning and development has come from the direct impact that they have had on me, sharing their stories, their ambitions, their resilience and by challenging me to look at things from so many other perspectives. I feel they have as much to teach us as we hope to teach them and for that, I will always be grateful to do the job I do.”

A young person who has been attending weekly Zoom group sessions set up during the Covid-19 pandemic said: “It feels like I am part of something and I really enjoy the activities. I have found it really helpful talking to others, keeping up to date with things and finding out what everyone else has been doing. It has really helped with my mental health too as it is a good distraction and it gives me something to look forward to and it’s exciting to see other people.”

To support the work of Rainbows and enable the charity to continue funding projects like this, visit rainbows.co.uk/donate