​This resource provides an example of practice demonstrating how South Lanarkshire’s Community, Learning and Development (CLD) Youth, Family and Community Team responded during lockdown. They transformed their youthwork theatre group for young people to meet online and create story-telling videos for children, young people and families.

How to use this exemplar

This resource provides an example of practice demonstrating how South Lanarkshire’s Community, Learning and Development (CLD) Youth, Family and Community Team transformed their youthwork theatre group for young people to meet online and create story-telling videos for children, young people and families during lockdown. 

Improvement questions

• How do I identify the needs of young people in the current circumstances?
• How am I helping young people to continue to engage in learning and wider opportunities?
• What support and information can I signpost young people to?
• How might the support and provision for young people need to be adapted or done differently during Covid-19?
• How can I raise awareness of the needs of young people during this time and ensure that their needs and voices are heard in recovery planning?
• How am I measuring the impact of new approaches and services and evolving these to suit the needs of young people?

Explore this exemplar

Vertigo Theatre for Youth, a group based at East Kilbride Universal Connections and supported by South Lanarkshire’s Youth, Family and Community Service, have been undertaking a range of initiatives over the lockdown period. One of these initiatives takes place every Thursday evening, where young people from  the senior group come together online to talk about how they are feeling and take part in an interactive drama session. The young people discuss and plan projects that they can undertake to keep themselves creatively engaged whilst entertaining other families and young people within South Lanarkshire. On average 22 young people have taken part every day.

These projects have included story-telling videos for children and families, including stories told in British Sign Language (BSL) and Makaton, that are published weekly. The young people have also been producing videos of themselves performing music from their homes. During one week alone the videos by the young people reached over 1,200 members of the public and had 395 engagements.

The Vertigo Committee of young people have been meeting online regularly and are making contact with the younger members of the group who do not use social media. Members of Vertigo are also currently working on writing poetry and monologues that represent their experience of lockdown, often concentrating on the positive aspects of the experience. These initiatives all aim to encourage young people to help support each other’s mental health, and to create a support network for young people during the current crisis.