The Social Circle is one of our newest additions to the Makerspace Paisley YMCA run groups.
The Social Circle aims to be a space for young people to come together and discuss important social issues, the online world and building relationships with others while giving their own unique perspectives. In particular, the group aims to explore and discuss nurturing healthy relationships and how the digital age has changed and reshaped our worldviews with different topics each week.
The world is a complicated and difficult place to understand sometimes and the value of a group like Social Circle is that it allows young people to express their feelings and emotions in the digital age. It offers a safe environment for self-expression with the goal of building healthy relationships with themselves and each other.
This kind of self-expression lends itself to writing and creativity extremely well and the young people that attend our groups love any opportunity to express their artistic or creative writing side. Creative writing is an element that may be incorporated into the Social Circle as a method of allowing young people to communicate and express their feelings in a healthy and important way, be it through fiction or non-fiction.
Youth Programme Coordinator Claire McGinley states that she believes the creativity of the young people who attend the group and the discussions the group has can lend very well to this concept:
“I think everyone has a story in them, I definitely think some people have many more stories than that. But our young people and absolutely all young people are just hugely creative. And sometimes they don’t even know it, which is a real shame but that’s what we’re here to support with, unlocking and unleashing that creativity.
“I think it’s a really good angle to take with Social Circle because the issues and scenarios we discuss in social circle are very real but they’re quite challenging. And I think sometimes to take a creative approach to that and tell a creative story means you can look at it from lots of different angles. So, I think that’s a really good club to get a bit of creative writing with.”
The sessions in the Social Circle aim to be open, honest and most of all, fun! We’re very excited about the possibilities of this group and where it can lead with the emotional and creative intelligence of all who attend it.
The Social Circle group takes place on Tuesday evening each week. For more information on signing up and purchasing a free ticket, please check the Paisley YMCA Makerspace List.