Fife young people affected by substance use overcome barriers to create wellbeing room

Clued-Up Project provides a comprehensive ‘youth friendly’ substance use support and information service for young people under the age of 25 in the Fife area.

The charity targets the wider issues of general well-being and lifestyle, with the project providing education, prevention, early intervention and diversion for young people affected by their own or someone else's substance use.

A team of young people who attend the project have been working hard the last few months in order to secure £3000 of funding, working completely independently as a youth forum.

With the funding that they secured, the group decided to design a wellbeing room at the Clued-Up Bunker in Kirkcaldy to provide them with a safe space to call their own.

As well as creating the room, the young people also learned essential life skills which involved, budgeting, internet spending, prioritised spending, creativity, compromising, team-work, listening, and discussion work.

Abbey Taylor, a family development worker with Clued-Up said that the youth forum aims to give young people a voice - they often feel that they are misrepresented and not listened to within their local community.

She said: “The young people have recently finished a huge piece of work where they successfully and independently applied for £3000 of funding from a local community fund from Velux Roof Windows.

"They decided to design a wellbeing room in our office with the money to provide them with a safe space to call their own and to take ownership of.

"They have thought of every detail so carefully, such as an art therapy area with a table varnished as a vision board to represent their thoughts, interests and journey, a music area where people can open up through music, and a recycle library – the theme they followed focuses on positivity and recovery.”

The young people also wanted the room to double as an area where they can search for jobs and work on school projects, as well as a place to chill out and have fun.

“The room also has an employability side to it with a laptop to apply for jobs, search for advice, find support on creating CVs and how to prepare for interviews, and search local job adverts,” Abbey said.

“There’s also a desk where people can go to support each other on homework, college work, college applications, and job applications using a peer support model.

"We also created a games room with a pool table, a Nintendo Wii, a punch-bag and board games."

Abbey added that all of the furniture and items used to decorate the room came from free donations using upcycling to show young people it doesn’t take a lot to make a house a home.

"B&Q donated paint, with Direct Carpet Company supplying us with carpets, and the pool table came from Tayside Snooker Services.

“Support was also given around being a critical consumer and getting the best for their money such as price comparing and looking at product reviews as well as factoring in additional charges like delivery into their budget.

"The young people also worked alongside local artist, Donna Forrest, to paint a wall mural of a yellow cherry blossom tree which represents growth, strength and family bonds.

"They factored words into the root of the tree which represent their journey - words such as empathy, resilience, and reflection to show that every person's journey through Clued-Up is different.”

Tamarah Howsego (14), has been attending the project since December last year and said that it has helped her to focus her energy.

She said: “When I first met Abbey last year I couldn’t be bothered to take part in the project, but now after I built a relationship with her I was able to start opening up.

"Before, when I came to Clued-Up, the wellbeing room was damp and not very welcoming. Now it is homely and a place that you want to spend time in.

"It feels really good that we were able to create the room exactly they way we wanted, but at the same time I was scared that people wouldn’t like what we had done.

"The project has changed me as a person a lot, now I can actually talk about my feelings instead of just bottling everything up – I feel validated as a young adult now and not just a kid.”

Sophie Hepburn (15) who also took part in the project said: “The project has been amazing, and has really helped with my confidence.

"Before I came here, I was withdrawn. After building relationships with people at the project I find it easier to open up and to express my feelings.

"The project has changed my life, my mental health has been quite bad in the past, my attendance at school was bad, but now with Abbey’s support I’ve been able to tackle a lot of my issues.

"I’ve now got a part-time job and I’m planning to go to university to study psychology.”

Dylan Mathieson (14) also said that being part of the project has helped him to gain confidence and to be able to express his feelings more freely.

He said: “I wasn’t going to school and was getting into a lot of trouble all of the time – after coming to Clued-Up and talking about my future it has helped me to build my confidence and focus on my life.

"Now I’m back at school full-time, I’m not getting into trouble anymore and I can see things more clearly now.

"I have a plan for my future now and I’m going to attend a trade hub to learn new skills.”

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