USING WRITING AND POETRY AS A WAY TO HELP KEEP POSITIVE AND CONNECTED IN THE FACE OF THE CONTINUED CHALLENGES OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC.
Young People’s Laureate for London, Cecilia Knapp, has launched #WriteThroughThis, a campaign to use poetry and creative writing to improve young people’s mental health.
The UK national lockdowns brought with them severe disruptions to young people’s routines, a sense of social isolation, and prevented some young people from accessing their regular mental health support. However, even as restrictions ease, many challenges still remain. A recent survey by mental health charity YoungMinds has shown that 67% of young people facing mental health issues believe that the pandemic will have a long-term negative effect on their mental health.
To help find ways through these uncertain times, Cecilia is encouraging young people to use poetry and creative writing as creative outlet, and as a way to find a community with other writers.
Cecilia is running a monthly series of online writing workshops aimed at allowing young people to try writing. Each session is a low pressure, safe, creative environment in which to start writing. Whether you’re new to writing or more experienced, there’ll be something for you. All sessions have BSL interpretation and auto-captions.
Find out more below, and sign up to take part.
Cecilia launched her campaign in a short, captioned video:
Project illustrations by Jess Nash.
