MINDmatter

Don’t worry guys, I’m still here (I know everyone was on the edge of their seats! 🤥)

I’ve been keeping my head down and working at a SEND school in the run up to Christmas. I think I was craving a bit of stability, predictability and a team, which leads me to say…

…that alongside the odd bit of freelance work when it comes up, I am also joining the Wellbeing Tutor team over at in the new year!

To be part of a mental health charity that’s rooted in the Bristol community and to be delivering workshops day in, day out is really exciting! Stoked with the opportunity and hoping to make positive impacts in this brilliant city. 🥰

Next Steps event.

Celebrating extraordinary moments for our Young Explorers in 2022 - here’s to some more great trips in 2023! 🎉 🏔️

YOUTH CLUBS ☄️

I think youth clubs are often the thing you don’t know about…unless you need them! An important but sometimes under-celebrated pillar of the community and of young people’s wellbeing.

Therefore, to attend this awards evening with the National Youth Agency and Boys & Girls Club, celebrating the work of youth clubs across the country was a welcome exposé.

Now, more than ever, organisations such as .bristol are plugging the gaps for parents juggling work, families choosing between heating & eating, and young people caught in the middle of all these real world stresses around them.

From my early introduction working with the brilliant , and .youthworker in Woking, to the likes of in Bristol, youth work has helped provide a sense of purpose and connection with where I live, as well as introducing me to some of the funniest and kindest people I have been lucky enough to work with.

This is a very tough time for all charities and organisations that rely on fundraising to survive and it’s a sad reality that youth provision, already decimated over the last twelve years, will be on the front-line of cut budgets and economic hardship. Follow, like, share and, if you can, support in some way your local youth charities because it all adds up and the people controlling the purse strings need to know how important these services are.

On that slightly downbeat note…happy half term one and all! 🙃

That’s a wrap on the outdoor season work for me and what a way to end in a changeable but beautiful Peak District!

The outdoors changed my life as a kid and hopefully it does the same for even a few of these young people! 🏕️⛰️

Helping teenage boys find a voice to express themselves and how they feel.

Few things are more important really… 🤷🏻‍♂️

Positive feedback - making me pinch myself since 2018!

At some point in 2020, and I sat down and the idea of was created.

It’s not always been easy, Rebecca in particular is the busiest of bees I think I know and there’s been Covid…and things. But the workshops we have delivered and the parents we have supported make it genuinely one my proudest achievements.

There’s only so long you can work in education & with young people before realising that everything starts at home and if you can make positive changes there, the effects are multiplied exponentially.

To all those parents out there, I hope the holidays go as well as they can - and don’t be too harsh on yourself if not, no one said it would be easy!

Happy Mondays!

Back working and grinning in the mountains next week with .grid.adventures , and I can’t wait!

📸 Scotland 2022

Good way to spending the (2nd) longest day 💫🤽🏻‍♂️

💬 “Brilliant”
💬 “Tom’s friendly attitude, making you think!”
💬 “One of the best facilitators we have had”

•••

Some words and snaps from last weekends Wellbeing workshop at

👫🌳🌞

Another walk out with the wellbeing team for , meeting great people and having lovely conversations.

These guys are now running wellbeing walks around the U.K. so check their website out to find your nearest one and take some time out for yourself - you won’t regret it!

Working alongside and was an honour and a pleasure.