Pandemic fails to stop youth work team doing their utmost
WHEN lockdown was first announced, these youth centre workers could have accepted furlough and taken a few months off.
The usual activities at the John Boste Youth Centre centre, in Walker, supporting teens aged 13-16, all had to be cancelled due to the pandemic.
But dedicated youth workers refused to give up supporting families, and quickly transformed into a hive of community activity at the heart of Newcastle’s East End.
When we issued a call-out for the stories of your pandemic heroes, there was one nomination we received again and again.
The Bostey, as it’s known locally, started producing activity packs as well as much-needed supplies of food for those struggling during lockdown.
Baking packs were sent to homes across Walker, as well as art and other activity supplies to children and teenagers trapped at home as schools closed.
Project manager Jodie Grieveson has been working at the centre for many years, and says she and her long- standing team weren’t going to let a pandemic stop them being part of the community.
She said: “We had only been open in our brand-new centre for 10 weeks – we had been “homeless” for a year and we’d just got into the new building on January, and then we had to lock down in March.
“We got together on that Monday and said, ‘right, what are we going
to do?’. We couldn’t just do nothing.”
The team began sending out recipe kits, complete with instructions and ingredients, to the families who used the centre, before opening up the service to the whole community through Facebook. They moved all the sessions online, teaching the likes of cooking classes via Zoom, and sent out activity packs to help stressed-out parents trying to keep children occupied while they were home from school. When we asked readers to tell us who their heroes of lockdown were, many of you came forward to nominate The Boste. One said: “They have helped not only underprivileged families, they have helped all families. They do an amazing job and are a pillar in our community.”
Another said: “They run all year round and even in lockdown they were out delivering food packs and activities for all the families who needed them in the local area. They are a brilliant bunch of peo
ple and so deserve to win this.”
A third said the team were: “great”, “hard-working” and “dedicated to the Walker community”, adding: “Unbelievable what they have done and continue to do for the kids in their care. Well done to them all.”
Jodie said her team were just one of the many groups of people who’ve kept the East End community together through this difficult year. Walker has really pulled together. People have supported each other. Building Futures North East started a food bank. Kids’ Kabin have done a lot,” she said.
“Walker is an amazing place, a very unique community for coming together, and since people have started to find their feet the donations we’ve had, the help from volunteers, has been amazing.”
The Chronicle has teamed up with Amazon to share your Covid Heroes stories. You can fill in the form on chroniclelive.co.uk to nominate a person, organisation or group that has made a difference to your life in 2020. We don’t want to pick a winner – but we will contact as many of your heroes as possible to shine a spotlight on them.