What will I do at the NEST?
You will get to decide what you do each day as long as you learn something from 5 different ares:
Life skills
How to be an independent adult when the time comes including how to:
- Budget, save and spend money
- Feed yourself and others in your life
- Make sure you are not too busy and not too stressed/in trouble for being late
- Get about to local and further places
- Tell if social media posts are trying to make you think one thing or another and why
- Judge what someone else is telling you is true.
- Understand the political system and landscape are in the UK (and globally) and how you can have a say in who is in charge of the town/country (by voting or campaigning)
Community skills
How to find and build safe, productive communities including how to:
- Find local groups or clubs that you might enjoy
- Look after your surroundings
- Set up your own business
- Build honest relationships with people in your life
- Plan an event
- Support others and ask for support
- Have difficult conversations/talk with people you disagree with productively
- Promote yourself and things you care about on social media, in person and through other methods
Self-care skills
How to look after your whole self. How to support your own health, including how to:
- Recognise and respond to your own emotions safely and kindly
- Help yourself calm down when you have become upset or angry
- Identify your boundaries and then respect yourself by enforcing them kindly with others
- Build a positive relationship with yourself
- Look after your body
- Enjoy free movement
- Listen to your body
- Review your progress towards goals kindly and ambitiously
- Find out what your body can do
Creative skills
How to express yourself through creative activities including how to:
- Explore a new creative activity
- Research to support creative projects
- Find inspiration in everything
- Become fearless (maybe only have less fear) in showing what you make
- Explore feelings and thoughts productively
- Communicate through art and creative projects
- Problem-solve when you hit bumps in the road
- Recieve and give feedback kindly and politely
- Evaluate your own work
Learning skills
How to learn, be informed and be critical about anything you want to know about, inlcuding how to:
- Research and know what you can believe
- Search online to get more reliable results
- Question what you read or hear, considering who is saying it
- Recognise learning as a thing we all do rather than something you are forced to do at school
- Find it easier to use the maths you actually need to get by as an adult
- Find it easier to read and write in the way you actually need to
- Understand elements of the world more clearly
- Pass exams more easily (if you need to)
What you do will depend on what you are interested in and what skills you need and want to develop.
At lunch you will either be part of the team making lunch or cleaning up after lunch
At the end of the day you will look at what you have managed to acomplish in the day and have a chat about how the day went for everyone.
What can I wear to the NEST?
Anything you are comfortable in but you have to be prepared to get it dirty (or bring in a change of clothes) outside or getting messy. In cold weather, please bring a coat and a hat/scarf/gloves as you prefer to wear. In hot weather please bring a cap or other sunhat.
Who is at the NEST?
There are two staff you will probably see every time you are in: Aoife and Joy. Then we have staff and volunteers who you will meet. Then there are other learners (up to 7).
What should I bring with me to the NEST?
Bring only things that you are prepared to get damaged/stained/broken. If there are fidgets or things you find helpful when you are upset, feel free to bring them. You will be asked from time to time to bring in specific things for craft projects, you never have to and if it is not easy for you to collect the item, there will be spares. Please only bring in chargers that are in good order and safe.
This is a partial page - we're collecting our twigs and building the NEST - check back soon for updates including: