This month, we meet YMCA Exeter resident Courtney. Courtney is 20 years old and has written a blog about her experiences of lockdown. Lockdown has been a very difficult time for me. In particular, my mental health got worse when I had to self-isolate due to showing symptoms of COVID-19. The way I personally dealt…
My name is Katie, I’m 21 years old, I’m a resident at YMCA Exeter and I live with a chronic illness called Fibromyalgia. During lockdown I have seen many articles about how lockdown has affected our mental health and how to cope with that. Yet whilst lockdown has taken a massive toll on everyone’s mental health,…
We have seen much needed cleaning supplies arrive from local Exeter businesses to ensure the continued health and safety of our 60 young residents. Toilet rolls, hand sanitiser and bleach spray were amongst the items donated over the last few weeks by local businesses having to close their doors during the current crisis. As supermarkets emptied in the run up…
A letter from our Joint CEO, Gareth Sorsby: I look back to February this year – we’d just left the EU; politics was hot on our minds and here at YMCA Exeter we were discussing the topic of homelessness with the BBC. Even thinking back to just three weeks ago and our night under the…
YMCA Exeter would like to say a big thank you to local residents for supporting the 10th anniversary of Sleep Easy and sleeping rough for one night to support local, homeless young people. Over £6,000 was raised on the night as participants slept out on DIY cardboard beds, bringing the total to £180,000 raised over a decade of Sleep…
A message from our Joint CEOs, Gareth Sorsby and Si Johns: Under recent government guidelines we are doing all we can to assist in the reduction of Covid-19 virus spread, by reducing our physical community interaction spaces and replacing these with virtual social spaces for our young people to continue to connect with us and…
YMCA Exeter is calling on local residents to come together for the 10th anniversary of Sleep Easy and sleep rough for one night in March to support local, homeless young people. YMCA Exeter is one of several YMCAs across the country that have joined forces to raise awareness of youth homelessness on Saturday 14th March….
Exeter YouTuber, Andy Robertson and YMCA Exeter are joining forces for a unique evening to confront the negative associations around gaming and help parents, carers, youth workers and teachers as they guide children towards making healthy gaming choices. Andy Robertson, a journalist for the BBC, the Guardian, and the Telegraph is drawing on research and…
YMCA Exeter is coming together with almost 600 charities to thank supporters who donated through the UK’s biggest match funding campaign, The Big Give’s Christmas Challenge 2019. Through this year’s Christmas Challenge, we smashed our target and raised over £7,000 to help tackle youth homelessness, in just seven days. During the week YMCA Exeter raised…
YMCA Exeter is gearing up to double supporters’ Christmas donations by taking part in the UK’s biggest match funding campaign, The Big Give’s Christmas Challenge 2019. Now in its 12th year, The Christmas Challenge launches at midday on 3rd December (Giving Tuesday) and runs for just seven days, until 10th December 2019. Throughout the week,…
