Erin’s Story

Erin’s Lockdown Story

When lockdown started, Erin (15 years old), was in the middle of her GCSEs, holding down a part-time job and volunteering once a week at her local youth centre.  

As lockdown kicked in, Erin’s school closed, the youth centre closed and she was furloughed from her job, all in quick succession. 

She didn’t understand what ‘being furloughed’ meant at first and just felt “disappointed and disheartened” to have lost her job “it's never a nice thing to hear” and feels she has lost her independence now she is trapped at home. 

Erin started to feel lonely and worried about what the future would hold.  She said “it's been a bit intense at home with my mum and my sister”.  “Not having the usual face to face support is scary”. She’s worried about her mental health over time in this lockdown.

After hearing that she wouldn’t be able to take her GCSEs, she felt frustrated, worried and scared.  She feels that she “doesn’t have any control” over her own future now that grades will be decided by teachers based on previous work and mock grades.  She’s “gutted about not doing GCSEs” but that it's out of her control now, so she’s “trying not to worry about them”.  

If she gets the GCSE grades she needs, she is still looking forward to hopefully starting A-levels in September.  And she’s really hoping she “won’t have a lockdown birthday” for her 16th birthday in August. 

Erin started going to the Exmouth Youth Centre, after some of her friends suggested she should go along 3 years ago.   She has been volunteering there for the past year, which she says “has really helped build up confidence”.  

When speaking to Erin, it was striking how much she was worried about other young people, rather than herself.  She said “it’s quite a worrying situation for many young people being stuck at home which may not be a safe space for them”.  

Erin has been helping Space develop online services for young people.  She said “it’s great to be able to talk to friends and youth workers on Discord” and that “it’s comforting to know I can still volunteer online”.   “The Discord server has been great and you can still have chats with friends and talk to youth workers in a safe and secure place”. 

Erin has also shared her personal story to help support Space’s appeal to prevent isolation for young people. Her youth worker Matt, says “she is definitely a potential youth worker in the making”

Update - 9th June 2020

As part of our appeal to provide tech so that young people can get online to access education, support services and to connect with their friends and youth workers, Matt put in a request for Erin to receive a wifi booster and laptop.   Erin was struggling to connect to the internet and engage in Space’s digital service because her wifi wasn’t very strong and her laptop was very old and faulty. 

Matt socially distanced-delivered Erin’s new equipment - she was overjoyed and had a little cry...

Erin said: “Receiving the chromebook and signal booster has really helped me connect with family,friends and the youth workers. As someone who was previously struggling to connect to the internet, I was beginning to feel isolated and cut off from the rest of the world.  I’ve been using the laptop to finish school work, apply for part-time jobs and plan my future.  These items have really helped me to keep in contact with my friends and get any support I need from Space*.”