Trapped in Zone One returns with Club Zone One ‘Good for Girls’ London Youth programme in partnership with Mulberry School for Girls.
Trapped in Zone One hosted the Good for Girls programme of a second year in Tower Hamlets with London Youth, supporting young females to access relevant, holistic early intervention mental health support in trusted community spaces. The programme included support and guidance from trained youth professionals, and opportunities to develop relationships, skills, and tools to maintain positive mental health. Young females getting support earlier, meaning fewer require referral to specialist services.
The Good for Girls programme aim is to help to create a mental health hub and extend the support for young females outside of school, with trained youth professionals who can create safe spaces where young females feel able to talk about their mental health and learn tools to manage their wellbeing.
Our programme ran from January to June 2022 providing weekly creative and sports provision, supporting young females aged 10-14, promoting positive mental health and challenge stigma.
They:
had access free activities that promoted wellbeing
discussed emotional wellbeing and issues they care about
took part in leadership initiative to promote wellbeing in their communities.
Good for Girls programme also included a residential, where a small number of young females took part in activities that helped them become ‘Wellbeing Ambassadors’ for our organisation. These ambassadors then led a social action project in June 2022 to promote positive mental health and wellbeing in Tower Hamlets.
Learnings from Good for Girls 2021:
“Although mental health terms are in common use; for example, depression, anxiety, stress etc, it was felt that some young people were unable to differentiate between mental health disorders and common feelings that all people (in particular adolescents’) face”.
With 75% of mental health problems becoming established by age 24, it’s vital to support young people at an early age. All too often, access to mental health support is limited.
London Youth | Good for Girls 2022 Social Action Project - Teenagers’ Mind with Mulberry School for Girls @ Rich Mix
Good for Girls 2022 | Case Study
In our Good for Girls project, we engaged with twelve young females aged 13-14 from Mulberry School for Girls through weekly after-school provision of creative and sporting enrichment activities.
Our initial interaction with the group took place in February 2022 when we met the young people to find out if a project around mental health would interest them to enhance their understanding on the subject. Receiving a positive response from the young people of their interest to better develop their understanding on mental health led us to work on a plan in which we could engage with the group on a weekly basis, to best engage and maintain their wellbeing on a positive level with creative activities of visual arts to spoken words to sport sessions of fitness workout to recreational football training.
“I joined this project because I wanted to learn more about mental health” Samirah, Year 8
“I joined because I wanted to fully become aware of mental health and participate in different activities”, Jannah, Year 9
We invited mental health speakers experienced in youth project to give talks to our group and introduced activities around the 5-ways to wellbeing model. Through the creative and sporting activities in alternative weeks with the added talking circles sessions, it begun to show us that the young female’s development on this subject was enhancing.
“I feel more confident on speaking about mental health, it has improved mu social skills which will help me in future situations”, Salwa, Year 9
“I’m more comfortable talking to others, socialising and learnt how exercise is good for your mental health”, Sara, Year 9
Our penultimate activity in Good for Girls was to work on a social action project which our group decided to create an educational film so it can be used and shown to future cohorts joining the Good for Girls programme about how such youth projects is important for young females to participate in enhancing their understanding about mental health and led our group to work together with a local young film maker to produce a short film and attended a special screening at Rich Mix in East London also attended by London Youth.
“As an end product it felt real that we took part in this project and learnt about mental health”, Mariam, Year 9
“I was so struck by the girl saying that as a young woman she feels she is told by society that she is of less worth – and Good for Girls helped counterbalance that. That is something of infinite worth”, Rosemary Watt-Wyness, CEO of London Youth
When we asked our group the impact this project has had on them and their concluding thoughts on our work with them for 5 months, their responses were,
“Good for Girls was a fantastic way to spend time away from stressful situation”, Sara, Year 9
“Going on a residential made me feel more confident, and now whenever I feel stressed, I know how to deal with it”, Mariam, Year 9
“This project has benefited me because I better understand about mental health, and would like to participate again on future projects”, Jannah, Year 9
“I enjoyed my time in this project, it has made me more confident and allowed me to experience new things that I didn’t know initially, taking part in sporting activities in safe space was an enjoyable experience. I leant taking part in opportunities is good because you never know you may like it or be good at it as a result.”, Zakiyyah, Year 9
Mulberry School for Girls | Testimonial
“Before the new year, some of our sixth form students approached me asking if they could launch a Youth provision program led by Trapped in Zone One. Here at Mulberry School, we feel passionately about the enrichment of students and after the initial meeting, we knew this would be a perfect fit for us. The project focused on students understanding mental health and wellbeing through a mixture of sports and creative arts projects.
Our students had some great opportunities to play a variety of sports such as badminton, football, and yoga, but also met with speakers and artists to develop their understanding of why mental health is important and the implications of bad mental health. Two students also were given the opportunity to attend a residential with London Youth. This project has been incredible and Trapped in Zone One has been a pleasure to work with, they are professional, organised and extremely accommodating. The students have become visibly more confident and self-aware and are their personal development has allowed them to take part in other areas on enrichment in Mulberry School. We would love to work with them in the future and we commemorate how valuable their work is for students.”
Testimonial from Mulberry School for Girls
Ayesha Begum, Womens Education Officer
Trapped in Zone One Podcast: Mental Health, Youth Provision and Social Prescribing with The Two of Us.
This podcast was commissioned by the GLA through London Arts and Health to celebrate phase 2 of London Arts and Health's Social Prescribing Myth Buster.
Good for Girls - The Exhibition as part of International Women’s Day in partnership with St. Margaret’s House
1-31 March 2022 | Gallery Cafe, 21 Old Ford Road, Bethnal Green, London E2 9PL
Our interview with curator Mae Shummo.
The title is inspired by ‘Good for Girls’, a series of arts and wellbeing workshops delivered by Trapped in Zone One, a registered East London based arts collective. All the artwork in this exhibition was created by girls aged 10-14 from Tower Hamlets who attended creative workshops with Kat Thomas (illustrator and educator with Trapped in Zone One), and in response to this year's International Women's Day theme #BreakTheBias.
We met with Kat Thomas ahead of the exhibition and she shared with us some insights into her work and support for girls and young women in the community and in schools. Kat makes emphasis on being a woman working with girls and young women to empower them through creativity. Art allows her and them the opportunity to express, communicate ideas that may at first seem overwhelming, such as themes of identity, belonging and being female, by giving them an individual and a community voice.
It is also vital for Kat that art and creativity is accessible and inclusive, and isn’t restricted to specific spaces or audiences. By taking art out of its expected space, such as into a shopping centre, a different audience can be reached and engaged with in new ways
Kat has facilitated this exploration via collaborative murals and workshops, both in and out of formal educational settings, and has found creativity to be a playful way to address complex themes. Much of her work also focuses on providing young people with SEND the opportunity for creative expression and building social bonds through art.
Having a background in illustration, Kat’s personal work equally relates to how we use creativity to engage with the world around us, and how it can unearth fresh perspectives. She uses many processes, from drawing and printmaking to crochet, and aspires to continue exploring the many tools for artistic expression with young people and their communities.
Trapped in Zone One founder Bablu Miah has been creating engaging workshops since setting up in 2019. As well as giving the participants an opportunity to express themselves through creativity, promoting mindfulness and confidence in young people, he has been keenly active in giving artists and educators such as Kat the opportunity to grow personally and professionally.
5-Ways of Wellbeing
