Phase is a small Hitchin charity with a big mission – to work alongside young people to promote their wellbeing and resilience.

Across the last year their mission has become even more important as we all face the challenges of lockdown, social distancing and stress caused by Covid.

Phase strongly believe that when children are supported early it is possible to prevent more serious emotional and mental health issues developing.

So, read on for Phase's highgly-acclaimed director Kieran Murphy share his thoughts on the current situation.

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Lockdown has been a challenge for all of us, we have often said we are all in the same storm but not the same boat.

The focus of Phase is always the wellbeing and resilience of children and young people, however as we've continued to go through the challenges of pandemic life we recognise that we need all the adults around young lives to be more than just surviving, we need them to be able to support and care for others.

The impact of Covid on all lives is huge.

The potential devastation this could do to the mental health and wellbeing of our whole community is terrifying.

At Phase we want to do all we can to change that story, we want to equip our town with the tools needed to get to the other side renewed and ready for post-pandemic life.

Winston Churchill once said 'If you're going through hell, keep going'

It may well feel like that for many people out there. Pressures of work, home schooling, concern for family and friends, the isolation, uncertainty of tomorrow, let

alone next month.

This is why we have developed our Renew programme which is curated material from some of the best minds, places and spaces out there, all with a focus of

equipping adults to be mindful of their own mental health and wellbeing.

We wanted to make it easy to engage with, as we understand that people are feeling at or more often than not, over capacity, therefore we've looked for great TED talks that can be listened to, blogs that won't take hours to read and content that is manageable and at your fingertips.

It is a simple idea that we hope will have a huge impact. It is based around three key elements: learn, engage and practice.

Learning something new is a great way to build mental wellbeing as it helps to give you a growth mindset, opens you up to new ideas, opportunities and engages

problems solving skills.

The engage aspect is the nub of the content, be that a video, podcast or blog. Finally the practice. When we action what we have learnt we begin to build the skills needed to grow our own resilience, boost our wellbeing and in turn be able to help those around us.

Sadly it is likely that we will be in some sort of restricted living for the foreseeable future, therefore we need to be proactive about looking after our own mental health.

There have been various articles in the recent weeks reporting impact of the ongoing ;ockdowns. A study conducted by University college London reported that 40% of people are doing less exercise in this lockdown compared to the first.

Researchers say the overall trends suggest the levels of satisfaction with life has deteriorated in recent weeks.

We need to act now to change the potential outcome, Renew is a free and simple way to begin to build the tools and skills to strengthen our mental health

and wellbeing.