Creative Youth Development (CYD)

CYD provides participatory arts for young people across Wirral which promotes independence, positive self-esteem and confidence. CYD provides a range of in-house activities based at Pilgrim Street Arts Centre and outreach activities including dance, drama, technical theatre, music and visual arts that enables young people to improve their physical and emotional well-being.

In-house and commissioned outreach work in schools and in communities provides an inclusive, creative and safe environment for young people with disabilities and young people who are looked after.

KIDSTIME family mental health project

Demand for KIDSTIME continues to grow. CYD coordinates and delivers these family based workshops and works closely with and is supported by the KIDSTIME foundation based in London at the Anna Freud Centre. 

The workshops take place at Pilgrim Street Arts Centre and the range of creative methods are used to help the families explore their feelings around mental health in a safe environment. The project running costs are now covered by Life Long Learning, on-going fundraising events and donations. The delivery team is a partnership between CAMHS, Barnardo's and KIDSTIME and aims to:

  • Support children and young people to benefit from understandable explanations of their parents' mental illness and parental behaviour
  • Address the children's various fears, confusion and lack of knowledge about mental illness and its treatment
  • Support parents who suffer from mental illness to find a medium within which the illness and its impact can be discussed between themselves and their children