Bursting the bubble of youth loneliness – local project helps inform national toolkit

A series of bubbly welcomes held by local young people - for local young people - around Orkney earlier this year has fed into a toolkit aimed at tackling the heartbreaking issue of youth loneliness around Scotland.

Iona Dundas, Anja Silgoner, Sean Stacey, Erin Rose Bayliss and Taylor Phillips devised the Bubble Tea Pop-Ups held between January and March this year, as part of their involvement in the Young Scot Youth Loneliness project, funded by The Co-Op Foundation.

In April, they travelled to Edinburgh along with supporting staff from the Council’s Youth Services team – part of OICs wider Community Learning and Development and Employability service. There, they presented their work to other young people and organisations involved in the project from around Scotland and had the chance to find out more about each other’s initiatives.

They then took part in activities to help make a toolkit for other groups trying to tackle the issue of youth loneliness. This was followed by some fun activities at Fountain Park, organised by the Young Scot team, giving the groups more time to get to know each other better, share what their projects meant to them, and relax after all their hard work.

Erin Rose Bayliss said: “I really enjoyed hearing what the other groups did and how, even though we were given the same project, we all came up with different ideas. The other events looked well done and a lot of care was put into them.

“I had a lot of fun taking part in the Youth Loneliness project as I met new people, made new friends and even travelled to Westray where I hadn’t been before. Overall it was a great experience. It showed that even something like a popular drink can bring people together and help them make friends.”

Anja Silgoner said: “I have really enjoyed this project and working with both the youth workers and the members of the group. Being able to see our ideas turn into reality was incredible.”

Taylor Phillips said: “The bubble tea pop-ups were really fun to do. I really enjoyed meeting people and getting to know different parts of Orkney.”

Iona Dundas said: “I really liked seeing how all the groups got the same brief and went in completely different directions. Throughout the project, I definitely gained more confidence in speaking to others and like the rest of the group, really enjoyed going out to the different locations.”

Sean Stacey said: “The Boba Tea pop-ups was a great experience. It goes to show that people in Orkney are willing to try new things. This time it was boba tea - personally my favourite was the mango and lychee one!”

As Youth & Family Learning Worker with the Council’s Community Learning and Development and Employability service, Karen Bevan supported the young folk throughout their involvement with the Young Scot project, and on their trip to Edinburgh.

She said: “It has been amazing to watch this group bring this all together. As Local Action Group with Young Scot they took the project seamlessly from the planning stages right through. They never lost sight of the purpose of the project and have been able to research youth loneliness in our area, find out what this means to them, and use this to provide a space that young people could visit and feel less alone.

“The thing that really stuck out for me was the idea they had that loneliness means different things to different people. The pop up bubble tea cafes were a way to highlight that fact, while trying to reach as many young folk as possible.

“The group were selfless in their dedication, they gave up a lot of weekends to this project and it was amazing to see them grown in confidence, learn new skills and push themselves out of their comfort zone.

“Hopefully their videos which are now on the Young Scot Orkney page will give young folk in Orkney an opportunity to see what services are available in the county.”

The Youth Loneliness toolkit and introductory video from the project groups is now available on the Young Scot website. It covers topics such as what loneliness is, ideas for your own youth loneliness projects, and tips for planning and managing events.

You can find it on the Young Scot website here at https://youngscot.net/ysobservatory/youth-loneliness-toolkit

Find out more about services and drop-ins for young people in Orkney:

• On the Young Scot website including videos made by Orkney’s Young Scot Local Action Group
• On the Growing up in Orkney website growingupinorkney.co.uk

A range of videos and resources can also be found on the Young Scot ‘Youth Loneliness’ campaign website at young.scot/campaigns/youth-loneliness/

More about youth loneliness:

The Loneliness Experiment conducted by the BBC found that 40% of 16 – 24 year-olds said they feel lonely ‘often’ or ‘very often’.

The impacts of loneliness are staggering. Loneliness can contribute to stress, anxiety, depression, paranoia and cognitive decline – and it can be both a cause and effect of other mental health problems.

To find out more about the prevalence and impact of youth loneliness, read our previous press release.

Find out more about how the project came about, in our project launch press release.