Coronavirus: A youth ministry liveblog

The NSPCC has shared useful guidance about how to talk to children worried about coronavirus, alongside practical ideas about dealing with isolation: how to structure a day; keeping in touch with family, and helping young people maintain a sense of control. Childline, part of the NSPCC, has also produced this coronavirus information page aimed specifically at young people.

Childline last week reported it has faced "unprecedented demand for its services" in the wake of COVID-19. More than 900 children and young people worried about coronavirus had counselling sessions with Childline between the 21st of January and 22nd March. Sessions peaked on the day (18th March) that the government confirmed UK school closures.

The NSPCC reported that "Over half of young people who spoke to Childline last week about coronavirus were counselled for their mental and emotional health around issues like isolation, arguments at home and removal of professional support from schools and the NHS."

Last week, Youthscape Luton launched a Digital Mentoring program to serve young people in Luton looking for support, you can find out about it here.

Our friends over at Intro Outro have an excellent, youth-facing YouTube channel that you could point young people towards. Their latest video features the highly practical "24 things to do in isolation". Check it out below!

The rapid rise in popularity of online video chat interface Zoom has brought with it a brand new and somewhat malevolent phenomenon. The practice of ‘Zoom-bombing’ sees people joining online chats and seeking to disrupt them by sharing explicit or unpleasant images, video and audio to the conversation. Once inside, the perpetrators are skilled at using multiple accounts to avoid being thrown off the call - meaning they’re quickly able to throw a video chat into chaos.

In order to prevent this from happening to a call, Zoom themselves have suggested a short list of steps you can take. You can find their response article here, but in brief summary:

1. You should avoid listing zoom links (Personal Meeting IDs) in public, and never allow screen sharing as a standard default for all users.
2. Familiarise yourself with the ways in which you’re able to manage participants as host (including muting individuals and locking the meeting), and make use of the ‘Waiting Room’ feature.
3. You might also want to consider password-protecting any Zoom meetings which aren’t open to the public as a standard good practice measure.

Many churches and youth groups are making use of Zoom in a variety of ways, and the likelihood is that as more people hear about this rather innovative method of online trolling, more cases of ‘Zoom-bombing’ are unfortunately likely to occur. It’s therefore important to take steps where possible to protect against an attack of this sort, which could otherwise lead to the unleashing of pornographic or other harmful material in the middle of a session.

The Archbishop of York Youth Trust has produced a set of activities and resources for young people, particularly aimed at developing young leaders. You can download them all for free here.

The Youthscape team have been working hard to create new tools and resources to support youth leaders in response to the recent period of massive and rapid cultural change. Here’s a brand new one, hot off the press. ‘Together Apart’ is a short series of curriculum resources enabling you to explore life and faith with young people, and is designed specifically for use in the context of an online youth work session. And it’s absolutely FREE!

Each session includes a short programme around a theme, along with copious notes on everything that a youth leader might need to consider when running the session online. We’re not claiming that this is a revolutionary new youth work model - but we hope that it will prove really useful in the immediate context in which we find ourselves.

The first two sessions, written by Youthscape’s Hannah Bradley, can be downloaded below. Session one looks at the subject of trusting in God, and the second resource explores how Jesus changes lives. Another four sessions will follow in the next couple of weeks. We hope to bring you more innovative resources very soon - but for now, we hope these are useful, and as always we welcome your feedback!

Scouts have pulled together a list of over 100 indoors activities you can do with young people, whether that's for your youth group or for your own families. Each activity has its own page, with a list of materials needed, recommended age range, time frame, and a reflection tying it all together at the end.

How can you support young people without face-to-face interaction? How can you help them look after their wellbeing, and deal with challenging circumstances, without meeting together? Youthscape Luton has developed a new program that will provide online mentoring services to young people who want it. Young people can easily sign up for Digital Mentoring through this page, and with parental consent secured, they can check in for 20-minute video call sessions (once or twice a week) with a youth leader to talk about anything they want to. This is one of our local, Luton-based projects. Sadly we can't offer this service on a national scale, but we thought it might encourage you as you rethink familiar youth work models, and try to imagine what meeting the needs of young people looks like when all the rules have changed.

Could you attempt something similar where you are? Perhaps you've started already – if you've got a story you'd like to share of something you're trying out, don't hesitate to let us know!

A few different youth organisations, including the National Youth Agency, The Mix and UK Youth have collaborated to create an excellent page of resources for young people and youth workers. There are links to webinars, downloadable resources and some helpful links regarding vulnerable young people.

Dreaming the Impossible (run by Vineyard Churches) have put together a great downloadable digital resource. It includes an overview of Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok. They also talk about what digital discipleship looks like now.

HTB Youth Online has a page full of creative ideas for youth work online. You could send young people the link for their podcast or just get inspired by their "digital detox" idea. With the increase in online presence, why not challenge your youth group to do a deliberate detox for an hour a day?

Want a way of continuing to share experiences as a youth group from the comfort of your own home? In the coming weeks we’ll posting various simple ideas for an online youth group here on the liveblog.

How about virtually touring a museum together? Taking a trip around London landmarks? Or using Google Earth, or Google Arts & Culture, to explore some of America’s National Parks? The internet is full of virtual tours allowing people to experience places they are currently restricted from visiting in person. Many group video chat platforms have a share screen function enabling the entire group to see something on one person’s screen. This is highly useful for allowing the whole chat to experience something together.

MUSEUMS
Numerous famous museums are now online and open for virtual admission. Here’s a few that are definitely worth checking out:

• Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
• Nasa Glenn Research Centre
• The British Museum
• Picasso Museum, Barcelona
• Benaki Museum, Athens
• National Palace Museum, Taipei City

CITIES/ LANDMARKS
New sites and new experiences are being added to the digital world on a regular basis. Some great ones that are already up and running include:

• Visit London
• Easter Island
• National Parks of the USA

For an online session, it’s important to remember that not all the young people will be interested in seeing round a museum or landmark. Keep the tour short and engaging. Check it out for yourself beforehand and identify what the best features are so as to direct the group to the most interesting areas.

You could even use the tour to play a game! Go through the site beforehand and note down a list of objects / words you see. During your online youth group, tell the young people the list of things they should look out for. Have them come up with their own buzzer noise which they have to make as soon as they spot something from the list. Keep it fun and interactive so as to keep the young people interested.

Youth for Christ have created a landing page directing you to their resources and support for youth ministry. They’re developing some video tutorials on moving your youth work online, plus they have a range of existing free resources you can download. Head over here to see them.

Were you in the middle of running an Alpha Course with your youth group? Or are you looking for fresh ideas to engage your youth group in the coming weeks/months?

Alpha have produced a guide for running the Alpha Course online, and this includes the Youth Alpha. Why not have a look and see if this is something that would work with your group?

With youth groups moving online, some of you will now be trying out live-streamed videos or little videos giving out encouragements to the young people you work with. Vineyard Churches have written this great post with some advice for filming yourself - equipment needed, lighting, sound quality, etc.

Several organisations across Luton have partnered together, with Youthscape, to form a response group as a central place for children, young people and families to get in touch and access town-wide support.

On Friday schools across Luton will close for the foreseeable future for the majority of students. In addition, many face-to-face support services and provisions in Luton already have already been suspended due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

We are aware this will be a significantly challenging time for many children, young people and families, as the impact of the current situation will cause financial, emotional and social strain on many in our community.

We know that your schools are working hard to ensure there will be on going support available over the coming months. Voluntary services across Luton also remain wholeheartedly committed to providing care and support for those who need it, particularly during this time. The group currently comprises of Families United Network, Level Trust, Luton Borough Council, Luton Food Bank, Tokko Youth Centre and Youthscape and more are likely to join in the coming days.

This is a local, rather than a national project, but we hope it's a helpful example to others across the country thinking about how to collaborate, at a chaotic time, to help support struggling communities.

To access this support or find out more, you can fill in the online referral form here.

School is cancelled and social distancing – or self-isolation – is the new status quo. In this new article Lahna Pottle speaks to other youth leaders to wrestle with what this means for working with young people. Here you can find government advice on keeping physically and mentally well whilst self-isolating.