Today, 4 of our students not only attended the Kings Fund Conference in Leeds, but they were speakers there, too! This has been a fantastic opportunity for our students as it’s a national conference focusing on mental health and youth services across the UK, and was a chance for them to present findings from research they took part in regarding youth services in Doncaster and how they could ‘live their best lives’.
Alfie, Kate, Scarlett and Rex have been completely amazing today from start to end, taking the delayed trains in their stride (with a hot chocolate – thanks Anna!) and keeping their composure when we arrived at Horizon in Leeds.
The conference was split into workshops and breakout areas, ours focused on supporting young people in communities using a capabilities approach.
All 4 students spoke confidently, clearly and ‘eloquently’ (a word used by a conference delegate!) and did themselves, me, Anna and Carrie from Doncaster Council, and XP, proud!
During the Q&A session at the end Scarlett even received a round of applause from the professionals who attended our workshop as a result of her answer to a question about the negative effects social media is having on young people. Well done Scarlett!
It’s been an absolute pleasure spending the day with Rex, Alfie, Kate and Scarlett and multiple professionals stopped us to tell us how impressed they were with the young people – one lady stopped the girls to tell them how courageous they were for having the guts to stand up and present to a room of around 35/40 people – they told her “it’s just what we do!”.
Well done – that’s how we XP!