The Youth Club Smile

Teenagers from RAF Marham's Airplay group reflect on what the group means to them and why it is so important.

People always say a smile is all you need and sometimes it can be very true.

When going to our youth club we are always met with a smile by our youth workers and that smile can automatically ease any anxiety, or stress as we know we have arrived at our happy place.

Sometimes life can be hard for us teenagers with exams, very strict teachers, long days at school, and on some occasions our parents leaving for long periods of time.

We are quite often left without our Mums or Dads for months at a time and it gets difficult and we get less time to spend with our families, especially if you have younger siblings who take up a lot more time.

Attending the youth club sessions helps us forget some of those issues for a short time and our project puts on great sessions and our youth workers help us just by listening to all our dramas without judging us and giving us great advice.

Recently one of our more favourite sessions has been a session on friendship. The session helped us see that friends are not just our peers but can also be anyone that makes us feel safe.

Being teenagers, we know we can be difficult sometimes, but our youth workers still smile even when we are causing trouble.

It’s great having people to talk to who will listen to our ideas (even the silly ones) and not just listen but also involve us in the decision-making of the things we do in our youth club.

Airplay is great, great people, great friends, great youth workers and great snacks too.

No matter what mood we enter in we will always be greeted with a smile and we will always leave with a smile on our faces.

Give someone a smile, it's contagious.

Written by five young people aged between 12-16