We are offering a new youth support space for young people for warm care, deep listening and tools for resilience.
Youth Support Space
Visit this link (eventbrite.com) to see our list of upcoming Youth Support Space sessions and related events and workshops.
Are you thinking, feeling or acting in the knowledge of the climate crisis and also aware that many other parts of life are in crisis?
Do you sometimes feel abandoned, confused, lost, despairing, raging, scared and other strong feelings? Is it sometimes difficult to allow yourself to feel anything at all?
Do you wonder how to keep going in an emergency that is going on and on?
Would you love to be able to spend time with others who get it, in a well held space where you are warmly welcome just as you are?
New support space for young people
We are offering a youth support space for young people offering warm care, deep listening and tools for resilience. This is a space where you can:
- Be warmly welcome
- Talk about your experience with people who will not dismiss you, or just listen in
- Meet other young people who may be in a similar position
- Learn straightforward resilience building practices that you can take away and use again and again
- Experience a consent based space where you will not be required to do anything that doesn’t feel right to you
- Choose to do a held self-reflection practice if you don’t want to talk with other people
We are working for collective care and resilience, based on consent and warm welcome, not just ‘talking about feelings’ but attending to deep human needs for belonging, autonomy and being seen and heard.
Please bring:
- Anything that will help you feel comfortable and supported during the session, a drink, your favourite blanket/smell/object to hold/cushion etc.
- Paper and pen as we will do a brief journaling activity.
We will be using breakout rooms for talking and listening in small groups. We will also have a silent reflection room with reflection prompts for those who would rather not talk in a small group.
This space is for young people who would welcome some holding support in their engagement with the climate crisis. It is not an extractive space for research purposes as this undermines the strength of holding and shared experience. Please check in with your motivation before coming along. Do contact us if you are not sure.
Who is it for?
Young people who want to explore, talk and listen about living in a time of climate and other crisis. You may be an activist but you do not need to be. You may be engaged and knowledgeable about the climate crisis or you may be looking at it out of the corners of your eyes and not wanting to face it. Please be aware that you may hear strong feelings and experiences from others that might trouble you as well as inspire you.
‘Climate wisdom is the understanding that our ability to respond to climate change and to work on climate issues is shaped more by our emotional selves than by our rational selves. The sooner we can make that connection, the more effective we will be’ Sarah Jaquette Ray
Our team of facilitators
Jo McAndrews
I am a mother to a teenager and I am a coach and trainer, focussing on supporting the needs of children and young people in the face of climate and social crisis. I trained originally in arts psychotherapy and have been working for the last 25 years with young people, families and people who work with them. I am sure that the world would be very different if older people learned to listen properly to younger ones and feel fiercely protective of the well-being of young climate activists.
Rachael Alexander
I am a Psychologist and Mum to two little boys. I have specialised in working with children and parents over the last ten years. I have always been engaged with the climate crisis cognitively but found myself experiencing it on a more emotional level when I had children. I found climate emotions to be really tough and lonely at times. I found accessing supportive spaces where I could discuss these feelings and meet other people really helpful. I am passionate about ensuring young people who are now growing up with such an awareness of the crisis, have available to them supportive spaces where they can explore their thoughts and feelings.
Gareth Morgan
Youth Coordinator and Clinical Psychologist. Gareth began a 1.25 day per week role as Youth Coordinator for CPA in February this year. He also works part time on the Leicester Clinical Psychology Doctorate.
Belonging and inclusion
We recognise that there are many ways in which young people can feel a sense of unbelonging and uncare in a shared space. We welcome the voices and perspectives of young people of colour, and those who are queer, neurodivergent, chronically ill or disabled, introvert, and whose needs are not met by systems of education, wealth and power. We know that this is easier to say than to put into practice and are committed to ongoing learning and feedback that helps us grow in this work. We recognise the collective trauma of being part of a group that is not valued or respected by the dominant culture.
Confidentiality
The sessions will not be recorded, they are just for the people there each time. We ask that you make a commitment to confidentiality and not share other people’s names or details that will identify them outside of the group space. You are welcome to share what you learn in the group (e.g. strategies etc) and topics of discussion, but are asked to do so in a way that respects everyone’s privacy and creates confidence in courageous sharing.
How to join us:
We are delighted to have funding that means we can offer this space to young people at no cost. Please let us know you are coming by visiting this link (eventbrite.co.uk).
Please arrive from five minutes before to five minutes after the start time. Please note that after this we will close the space so that we can hold the group strongly without being distracted by interruptions.
Learning lab
We are offering something new for the CPA and want to make sure it is the best it can be. We will run three sessions over three months in the learning phase and will ask people who come to let us know about their experience so that we can grow the spaces into something truly useful. We will also use feedback to apply for further funding to keep running the spaces. After that our plan is to invite others into the facilitating team and offer ongoing monthly drop in radical care spaces.
If you would like to ask any questions please email
We are offering this support as a radical care space.
We have chosen this language carefully to describe what we want to offer. If you are interested to know more, here is some more information about what we mean by it. We want to let you know what frameworks we are working with so that you can see if you feel drawn to the space. We do not expect you to agree with us or to spend any time studying it! You are welcome, whatever your beliefs or experience.
Radical:
We recognise that dominant systems of power that are causing climate and social crisis also silence the voices of young people. We are in a culture of separation where adults and older people do not know how to really listen to young people. Instead young people are regularly dismissed and rejected by older generations. The education system is part of this culture of uncare and causes huge anxiety to many young people while also failing to educate them in what is actually needed in this time of emergency.
We are determined to do things differently. We recognise that care is often misunderstood as a privileged luxury that slows down action and doesn’t do any good. We see that the whole subject of care and wellbeing has been colonised by the dominant systems of power and we are working to shift the whole narrative towards radical cultures of care that disrupt white supremacy and capitalism.
We reject a model of self care that is about individual comfort and instead recognise that we are reclaiming vital aspects of connected human and planetary thriving that grow true resilience and serve all of life.
We understand climate distress in the context of intersectional experiences of exclusion and uncare. It is not an individual psychological problem but a social and political one caused by the reckless and passive abandonment by the adults in power.
We are questioning traditional white-centred, gendered and individualistic models of psychology and looking to wider circles of wisdom for understanding. We recognise the urgency of the situation and know that the earth needs young people to be whole and held so that they have the resources to meet what is facing them.
We deeply value what young people have to say. Young people contribute so much that is not acknowledged in a culture that places disproportionate burdens on the young and yet withholds the power to change things.
Care:
These spaces are held by experienced older people who are themselves supported in circles of care. We are engaged in climate crisis work but not fixed on particular activist solutions. We encourage people to be involved or not involved in activism according to their needs and capacity in the moment. We will never tell you what we think you should do.
We are offering warm holding and structure to make our time together powerful and solid.
We recognise the urgent need for older people to hold, support, listen to and believe the experience of young people. We know that this is a rare experience!
You do not need to protect us from your pain, we welcome whatever you bring.
We know that young people are feeling abandoned by older generations who have not managed to stop the climate crisis and who are not listening. We want more older people to know how to listen and step up in support of the young, not expecting you to do all the work but supporting and joining in with you.
We support young people learning how to support each other but here we are offering young people the chance to sink into an experience of deep nurture that you do not have to organise yourselves.
The space is consent based. You choose how much you want to say about yourself, when you want to participate and when to observe. We offer choices in what we invite you to do and we respect your ‘no’
The spaces include sharing and listening but that is not the only thing. We are also offering a toolkit of embodied resilience practices to support you in whatever you are engaged in.
We know that one gathering a month is not enough for what is needed. It is a start. We are also gathering a collection of supporting resources and signposting to other spaces offering more ongoing belonging, care and learning.
The facilitators of the spaces are trained in embodied, trauma informed approaches to care and we are continuing to learn more about this and other wisdom.
Space
This is what the word space means to us:
It is an experience of being held but not controlled.
Space to rage, explore, grieve, complain, love, learn, be together
Courageous space for taking risks and for deep authenticity
Space for resting and listening
Space for listening to what your body needs right now
Space for meeting others
Space for strong feelings or no feelings
Space for being listened to and believed
Space for not knowing the right answers
Previous Support Offered
Funding from the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Global previously enabled us to develop two programmes of support for young people, aged 18 - 25, and one for parents/carers.
Radical Nurture Group for Youth Climate Activists
This consisted of a series of six small group support circles, creating safe spaces to share difficult thoughts and feelings and learn different techniques for coping with climate-related distress.
Resilience Toolkit for Young People
The second project, Resilience Toolkit for Young People: Responding to the Climate Crisis via Imagination and Conversation offered a programme of six workshops including sessions on art therapy, storytelling, intergenerational dynamics and exploring eco-anxiety.
Parent/Carer/Guardian Climate Circles
Providing support to parents/carers/guardian is another way of supporting young people. When parents/carers are able to manage their own climate related distress they are in a stronger position to be present and connected with the young people in their care and help them to manage their feelings.
If you are a parent, carer or guardian click here for more information.
Learning from our experience
We welcome feedback from all the young people who take part in these projects to help us develop our work to provide the most useful support that we can.
If you are a young person interested in taking part in any of our future support sessions and workshops please get in touch.