Youth Zone News!
Youth Champion Study
The CHAMPION study has been created by the NHS to find new ways to measure the quality of services for congenital heart disease services for both children and adults. We believe it is so important to try to find out what people living with CHD and their families think is most important to them. We want to hear your views about your experience of CHD services.
Stepping out of shielding
The information you, our youth members wanted, to make safe choices with your families about stepping out of shielding.
LHM Youth Isolation Ball
We know that many of our youth members aged 11- 17 will not be able to attend their school/college end of year parties, proms or graduations due to the Coronavirus crisis and don’t want to see you miss out.
Little Hearts Matter have decided to throw our own virtual ”LOCKDOWN BALL” so that all our youth members aged 11-17 will still have the opportunity to get all dressed up, have some fun, win some awards and spend the evening with their Little Hearts Matter friends.
So how will we be doing this?
The LHM Youth team will be dressing up and hosting an awesome party on ZOOM. We are inviting our youth members to great all dressed up, even wear your prom outfits and attend. It will be an evening of music, fun, awards and time spent with your friends with half a working heart!
2.6 Challenge!
Now more than ever Little Hearts Matter needs the support of its members to survive the Coronavirus crisis. And boy are our members coming together to find ways to fundraise from home!
Our fantastic youth group decided they wanted to contribute and with the help of Lexie decided to get sponsored to join in an exercise class on zoom. These young people pushed themselves in a safe way, they went above and beyond and raised over £500 for Little Hearts Matter. We though this absolutely deserved a mention and a huge thank you! Well done to every youth members that participated we think you’re great!
LHM Youth Council Covid Response
The Little Hearts Matter Youth Council have been working together to create their response to the Coronavirus and how this may impact our youth members.
Our brand new Youth Council!
We are very excited to be able to introduce you to Little Hearts Matter’s brand new youth council.
Together they will be working with Lexie our youth leader to ensure the voice of the youth members is heard. That the services and support we provide are what they need and want and to bring ideas to the table to move our support and services forward.
April 2020 Youth Group Timetable
Okay guys and gals – here’s the youthzone timetable for the month of APRIL.
We have all sorts of fun in store and it can all be done at home!
If you have any questions just drop Lexie a message (lexie@lhm.org.uk) and she will be happy to help!
Coronavirus Information – 23.03.2020
Here is the latest Coronavirus information as of 23.03.2020 simplified so our youth members are able to understand easily.
If you have any questions you can get in touch with Lexie on lexie@lhm.
NEW* Youth Support Volunteers coming to LHM
We know that sometimes being a teenager with half a working heart can make you feel as though no one understands.
As you’re looking towards the future, thinking about further education, work and relationships you may have questions that your cardiac team and youth leader can try to answer but hearing from young adults that have lived through it would be amazing. That’s why we have created and trained a team of young adults with single ventricle hearts to become youth support volunteers!
In February 2020 this team of five young adults will be available for a couple of hours in the evening Mon-Fri to listen, chat to and even talk about their own experiences. They have been working with Lexie our youth leader so that they can offer some support and help young people feel less alone on their journey with half a working heart. The team will begin on Facebook, but eventually move onto our other platforms too!
Our great team will not only be providing 1:2:1 support but some fun evenings of games and quiz’s in the youth social group chat. A great way for our youth members to become sociable and meet other youth members without using up vital spoons of energy.
Keep an eye out for a timetable being posted soon so you can see when and how our youth members can access this great support. If you’re over 13 and not in our youth Facebook group chats
*NEW LHM Youth Council coming in 2020
We’re bringing back the Little Hearts Matter youth council in 2020!
The LHM youth council is an amazing way to make sure we as a charity make sure the youth member’s voice, your voice is the one that leads the way. To do this we are looking to recruit 6 LHM youth members aged 11 (secondary school aged) to 18 years old that were willing to commit to a long term role as a LHM youth councillor.
So what does someone in the youth council do?
A member of the youth council represents the voice of the young people we support, young people like you! This is a very important role so the people we are looking for will need to be dedicated and want to make a positive difference. This is a long-term position.
Little Hearts Matter and BHF hold a joint youth event at the National Space Centre.
On March 2nd Little Hearts Matter collaborated with The British Heart Foundation to bring a fun packed and informative day to both our youth members and theirs.
Ten Little Hearts Matter youth members from all over the UK came along and spent the day with the LHM youth team at the National Space Centre in Leicester. Here they not only participated in various workshops building rockets and programming MARS rovers but enjoyed a show in the planetarium and meeting other young people their age going through similar situations as them. Many great friendships were made, and it was great to hear the youth members talking to each other not only about their heart conditions but how this affects their day to day life. Many of our youth members realised they were not alone in their journey and this was great to see.
When asked if they needed an energy break one of our youth members commented that it was great that they didn’t have to explain why they were tired as everyone was and already knew why. By the end of the day after we had fired our rockets, been to space, driven a mars rover, dressed up and seen explosions we said goodbye to some happy youth members armed not only with more knowledge about their heart and energy but with friendships and great memories.
Youth Text Support Service
In June 2018 LHM launched its brand new youth text support. An opportunity where youth members are able to text Lexie the youth leader each Thursday evening 6-10pm.This is chance for our youth members to speak to Lexie directly and ask for support for any lifestyle issues, catch up for a chat or share any achievements.
So far our youth members have really taken to this line of support and we hope it will continue in the future.
If you’re a LHM youth member aged 11 onwards and would like access to this support just send lexie an email and ask for a form on lexie@lhm.org.uk
The Eden Project 2018
This summer we ran a brand new residential youth event at the eden project in Cornwall.
13 Little Hearts Matter youth members joined the youth team and had a great time. Two days were spent seeing and experiencing some amazing areas at the Eden project including the rainforest and Mediterranean biodomes. Watching live experiments, eating great food, making new friends and joining in the energy project workshops! Talking about energy levels and how to manage and explain them to others.
Many of our youth members have kept in contact since the residential and great friendships have been made. Some of our youth members are creating a vlog of their experience so keep an eye out for that.
Open Day 2018
We are so excited to say our Open Day 2018 was a great success!
So many of our youth members and their siblings came to the youth workshops and were empowered, learnt about their heart and most importantly made friendships with others in similar situations.
We would firstly like to thank our youth members, this is a day for you and without you it could not have gone ahead.
Secondly we would like to thank our Youth Volunteers, Sammy Elston, Jon Hudson and Cherry-Lee Pilkington for coming to help us on their weekend and support the running of the workshops, the young people and of course the pizza party!
New Youth Instagram
Instagram is a wonderful form of social media, popular with young people.
LHM’s zipper members now have both a private Instagram, just for our youth members aged 13+. A place to share celebrations, thoughts and opinions in a safe and friendly space.
We also have a public zipper page where everyone can see our successes, news and support our youth members in their journey. @lhm_zippers
Youth Events 2018 – PGL
We are booked and ready for our young people to claim their places on our 2018 Activity Weekend.
Friday 17th August – Monday 20th August
A great place for our youth members to not only participate in new and exciting activities and learn about their heart and energy levels, but meet other youth members and create great friendships.
Zipper youth forum
A new forum is coming, a chance for your voice to be heard!
We will be inviting five zipper members to be part of the youth forum for a six month period where you will be working with our youth leader Lexie to ensure that all the services we provide are what you want!
If you think this is something that you would be interested in, don’t hesitate and contact Lexie.
Career Fairs 2018
Life after school can be daunting and there are so many options out there it can be overwhelming deciding whats best for you!
Job Fares are a great way to get out there, meet representatives from different organizations and really discuss options so you are fully equipped with all the information before you make your decision.
Lexie is attending a number of job fairs all around the UK in 2018 that you can join her on, you can speak to the pros.
Zipper Filming Opportunities 2018
There has been lots of fun and excitement in the LHM office in 2017! Some of our youth members with half a heart have recently created a film about the forthcoming energy project with spoons. A great film was produced and managed by our young people, where they told their amazing stories in front of a big camera. This was greatly received by members and medical professionals alike!
In 2018 we are planning more filming opportunities and will be calling out for some of our zippers to take part and shine on the big screen. Keep your eyes peeled for casting calls!
Zipper Zone Launch
We’re very excited that our new youth site for our young members – Zipper Zone – has finally gone live! We hope that you enjoy browsing through the site and we are really eager to hear from you, our young members, with news stories that we can include here!
We had a few ideas of some types of articles that we love for our young members to write for us, but if you have any other ideas (or would like to do one of these for us!) please get in touch with us.
