We were delighted to provide digital devices for the young people in St Teresa’s Youth Club in Craigmillar, Edinburgh as part of our Computer Delivery project.
About St Teresa’s Youth Club
St Teresa’s is a youth club aimed at individuals aged 9-18, offering weekly activities, residential trips, workshops and community events for young people from low income families. It helps these young people to gain confidence and vital skills, all while contributing to the community.
Even a global pandemic couldn’t stop the staff at St Teresa’s from supporting their young people! Despite not being able to meet in person due to the current social distancing guidelines, the youth club has embraced the world of digital, moving lots of their events and activities online. The team worked quickly to launch many of their events and activities online, including arts and crafts workshops, baking competitions and even pizza nights!
People Know How and St Teresa’s
This was where People Know How came in. While the club had successfully remodelled their meetings to work digitally, not all of their members had access to computers.
Fortunately, group leader Lesley had heard about People Know How through her previous work and was able to refer individuals to us for devices.
The impact of the devices on young people
The laptops mean that members of the youth club have continued to be able to access the vital support and space the club offers. On Fridays, the club hosts a pizza and movie night, delivering pizzas to their club members before gathering to watch a movie together online. Lesley said that this activity has been really popular, and helps ensure the young people still have that Friday night weekend feeling, despite having to stay in.
Meanwhile, the devices have also helped to provide the personal space young people sometimes need. One member of the club is from a large family and has five younger sisters. Before he received his device from People Know How, the whole family was having to share one tablet. This impacted his learning and ability to connect with St Teresa’s; he was never able to have any one-on-one time with the club as his siblings would always join in.
However, now that he has his own laptop, he is able to connect on a more individual level. This sort of engagement has increased across the club since the laptops were delivered in December. Having access to their own device has helped boost both social engagement and schoolwork.
We are over the moon that Computer Delivery is helping people across generations. The project and many more like it are available to provide devices and wellbeing support as part of our Reconnect service. If you would like to find out more about how we can help, visit our Reconnect page.
"I have to say a massive thank you to People Know How. I was expecting to have to chase it up for ages. With other places it has been such a faff to get everything organised, things have fallen through, so I couldn’t believe how smooth the process was at People Know How and how quickly the young people received their devices.”