The North Tyneside Young Person’s Discovery College is a new project developed by VODA, in partnership with Barnardo’s The Base and funded by the North Tyneside CCG.
Built on the Recovery College model, The Discovery College aims to support young people (16-25), to better manage their own mental health and wellbeing.
The aim is to create a safe, supportive space, for young people to come and build on their confidence and learn skills to better understand themselves and their own mental health. We want young people to feel empowered to lead a happy, more fulfilling life.
The Discovery College will offer young people, workshops, courses and activities that are co-designed and co-produced by young people. Access to the college will be free to all 16 to 25-year-olds living across North Tyneside, by an easy self-referral process.
To facilitate the running of the Discovery College, VODA has recruited two new members of staff. The first, Jessica Shaw (pictured left), has already joined the team and is now looking to recruit young volunteers to the project. We will also be welcoming Kirsty Christofi to the team shortly, who will work with Jessica to develop the Discovery College.
Young Persons’ Co-production Worker Jessica commented:
“I am really excited to be working on this new project to support young people’s mental wellbeing in the borough. What makes it more interesting is that the development of the college will be led by the young people and I encourage anyone who is interested to please get in touch with me to find out more.”
Reflecting on the need for a Discovery College, VODA’s Chief Executive Robin Fry said:
“Through our work with the NT LIFE Recovery College, we soon identified the gap in mental wellbeing support for younger people. We connected with our friends at Barnardo’s the Base to develop the concept of a young person’s recovery college and realised that the best way to create something that is relevant and appeals to these young people is by having them on board from the start. We have found this co-production technique to be very successful with NT LIFE and are really looking forward to seeing how it works with the Discovery College.”
Interested in finding out more?
If you know of anyone aged 16 to 25 who would like to get involved, please contact Jessica.shaw@voda.org.uk, or call 07598 893 237.
