October was a fun month at MYPAS, especially for the LGBT+ Group, so we thought we’d share what we’ve been up to in this MYPAS Monthly Update.
At the very beginning of the month, one of our Grassroots Project Workers had a one-to-one pizza-making session with one of our young people in a space lent by the North Berwick Youth Project.
While making pizzas, they had a great chat about reducing substance use, strategies and setting goals.
For World Mental Health Day on the 10th, we published a guide on how to make yourself feel better and some of our Drug & Alcohol staff attended the ‘Get Involved’ event. The project brought together opportunities and activities for young people, creating safe, positive spaces to enjoy the holiday period and beyond.
Our LGBT+ Social Group had a blast this month!
During the October break, they headed over to the Modern Art Gallery in Edinburgh for a tour of the Resistance exhibition of protest photography across different countries and groups. The young people enjoyed hearing from the tour guides about the context for different types of protests and thinking about how they engage in Resistance.
Some of them shared their thoughts:
“I would just like to say I adored the history side of the exhibition, specifically the different types of protesting people have done. Protesting is a large part of the Scottish identity, but I don’t get to see it catalogued other than “its a thing that exists.”
“Being able to see protests from throughout history helped me feel as if I’m not alone.”
“I loved this trip it was so fun and I hope we can do more trips like this in the future! I was enjoying it so much I forgot to take any photos! My favourite part was the disability protest photos, especially the one where all the people were in front of the bus blocking its way. I thought it was all very meaningful and interesting to see how protesters haven’t changed that much.”
Finally, to wrap up the month, the LGBT+ Social Group enjoyed a Halloween week full of activities.
At the beginning of the week, the groups had two parties where nobody wanted to dook for apples but everybody wanted to eat snacks.
There were some leftover doughnuts, which they finished at their movie night.
The junior and senior MYPAS LGBT+ groups came together to watch Coraline at a community venue, which was voted on by a landslide. There was lots of screaming and laughing, from people who’ve seen it a hundred times and not at all.
They finished off the Halloween week with a costume making session so everybody was ready for the Big Night.
