In May the SSF East Central Team took up the amazing opportunity from Netball Scotland to take along SSF young people to the Super Saturday Netball Scotland event at the Emirates Arena. Together we had 21 young people from Lochgelly, Fife and Bannockburn, Stirling, who travelled to Glasgow to make the most of the day. The young people who attended were participants of our Shell Twilight, SSF Young leaders and SSF Chance:2:Be programmes.

The young people were all aged between 13-16, come from disadvantaged backgrounds and many have been faced with adversity resulting in low confidence. They attend sessions weekly and have described the sessions as a “safe place” for them to discuss their week. SSF provide positive role models and experiences for young people, ensuring young people are at the heart of everything we do.

For many of our young people the opportunity was very exciting for them as it allowed them to explore a new place that most of them hadn’t been before. Young people often do not have fun or exciting things to do at weekends and were very appreciative of the staff at SSF for taking them away for the day.  

Although the day was exciting, there was some sense of overwhelm and anxiety throughout the day. For many of our young people it was their first time being on trains, experiencing large crowds since COVID and being so far from home. Our friends at SAMH were there on the day too and had fantastic tools to help relieve the worry from the young people. Many young people overcame challenges throughout the day.

We all finished the day on a high and the young people were so grateful for the opportunity!