groundwork_youth_team

Kirstie Mactaggart

Youth workers staying sane throughout these crazy times, broadcasting thoughts, feelings, ideas, opportunities and occasionally important info mixed in there too! Enjoy :)

  1. 11/18/2020

    Lockdown 1 - Review

    Hey guys! We hope you are all doing well. As we've now began lockdown 2 (who'd have thought we'd start numbering these occasions?!), we thought we'd have a bit of a look back on Lockdown 1 to reflect on the crazy time we been through so far. We found looking back, the podcast has really been a reflection of real life. We started out with the hope of engaging with you all, letting you know what we were finding hard or beneficial, having a bit chat about what we were doing to fill our time and generally giving you all something you could pick up the phone, give us a ring and start a conversation with. Lots of baking, fence painting and Tiger King as I recall. As things started to progress, we began getting you all ready for getting back into society, bringing guests on to discuss volunteer opportunities and training that you could take part in from home. By the end of lockdown, we began giving hints and tips on interview techniques, improving your CV and bringing job vacancies direct to your headphones each week. We've adapted each week depending on what was happening in the world and we hope the podcast gave you a little light relief from the craziness of the world at times. It's been a bit of a roller-coaster really and in some ways we have gone full circle back to looking after out mental health as the World slows down around us once again. So now, as we head into lockdown 2, we will be focusing more on looking after our health and well-being as we get through this weird and wonderful time once again. Please do come and join us on Facebook if you haven't already, in the 'Health, Fitness and Happiness' group, we'd love to see even more clients taking part before the end of the year. Thanks again for listening, please give us feedback and let us know if you'd like to take part in the next episode. As always, stay safe - and remember, we're all in this together - Kirstie & Steven :)

    Lockdown 1 - Review
  2. 08/28/2020

    We're back!

    Hi Guys! Well... Here is week goodness-knows-what of the podcast. We've had a little break from recording these over the last couple of months as we looked at what we wanted to get out of doing this podcast for you all. We felt like the chatter of what we were doing throughout lockdown was becoming a little outdated as things have started to get back to (dare I say it) some sort of normality? So, we're back, and we've mixed it up a little with the focus now being about getting you all back into work or training if, of course, that's the stage you are at in your Durham Works journey. We discuss live job opportunities in our Jobs with Jason slot, hear how to best increase your employability with tips from Successful Steph as well as hearing from the lovely Eve Galloway about how our partners over at CAB are changing their engagement offer to be able to deliver the very best support and training to you all in a virtual way. For those of you not quite ready for work and training, we also have a chat with our Michelle and 2 young people from her youth group about the kids of activities we are offering to keep you all engaged. We're talking intergenerational events, online youth clubs and we also may/may not announce the winner of the recent cooking competition... You'll have to listen to find out... (bake off has got nothing on us!). If you'd like to get involved in any of our youth activities, we are looking to get there back up and running in other areas in the very near future so give us a shout if you'd like to know what is going on near you. Lastly, we hear from our wonderful Durham Works client Paige as she chats about her achievements so far in setting up her own vintage clothing company. Paige discusses the challenges that have came with this as well as the fantastic progress she has made so far. If anyone would like to have a look at Paige's business, check out 'Canny Vintage' on Facebook :). Paige is hosting a (socially-distanced) craft fair on September 24th at Refuse Cafe in Chester le Street for anyone that would like to pop along to buy, or even have a table to sell, please drop Paige a message for more info. Any feedback on this week's podcast will be appreciated as we try to tweak it to be exactly what you want to listen to and as always if anyone want to come and have a chat with us on the next one about absolutely anything just give either of us a shout and we will get it arranged :) Thanks for listening and stay safe, Kirstie and Steven

    We're back!
  3. 06/12/2020

    Birthday disasters and Blaydon Race mishaps...

    Welcome to week 537892782 of the podcast! Your guess is as good as mine on what week we are up to of all of this with days and weeks now fully merging into one. Thanks so much for coming back to listen to yet another episode of our ramblings. This week it was mine (K) and my Mam's Birthday so you'll hear all about, what can only be described as, the most disastrous isolation Birthday celebrations ever. I mean, if you can find someone that had less luck on their Birthday, I'll personally buy you a bunch of weeds... Lots going on this week in The World of Groundwork - we've got the #MileChallenge for everyone to get involved in and support us to reach our 1407km target. We also have an '8 ball pool' tournament to get involved in through which a takeaway on us is up for grabs! With Men's Health Week coming up next week, we talk about our plans to raise awareness of this by encouraging all of our clients, friends and colleagues to track and post just ONE mile on Monday 15th June. This can then be posted on Facebook with #AMileMarchForMen to raise awareness of the #menshealthweek campaign. We were also joined this week by our lovely colleague Steph, who discusses the current volunteering opportunities and the value from taking up these opportunities to support with future employment. Our 'game of the week, game of the week, game of the weeeeek' - Scatagories was attempted by Steph this week in a bid to get Steven off the top spot - you'll have to listen in to find out if she managed... Thanks again to everyone that is listening each week. It's lovely to have feedback and it's great to know that our ramblings are brightening your day and taking your mind away from the current situation, even for just a little while. As always, stay safe, wash those mitts and ....stay indoors?...Outdoors?...Two meters away? - Ahhhh we've no idea on the rest of the guidance these days so maybe check out Steph and Jack's coronavirus Q&A Podcast for the who, what, where, why and when's... Until next week - Bye for now :) Steven and Kirstie

    Birthday disasters and Blaydon Race mishaps...

About

Youth workers staying sane throughout these crazy times, broadcasting thoughts, feelings, ideas, opportunities and occasionally important info mixed in there too! Enjoy :)