Meet Sophia

My name is Sophia Panagiotou and I’ve been a part of the volunteering team for Fast Forward since September 2011.

As a volunteer I took part in the 5-week core training program at Fast Forward, where I learned all about delivering peer education, and after that I helped a few times with delivering the training to new recruits. I also helped with the recruitment of students from Napier University where we had a stall.

I’ve been rather busy with my studies, but the good thing about volunteering with Fast Forward is that it’s very flexible – you can choose a project relevant to your timetable – and you get to take part in projects that interest you. Fast Forward mainly specializes in young adults and teenagers on the topics of tobacco, drugs and alcohol, so there’s so much to learn within the training and even more in practice within the projects.

Board Games at Boroughmuir

My latest project is at Boroughmuir High school where me and Jay (one of Fast Forward’s Development Officers) teach the 6th years how to deliver sessions on risk behaviours and equality, and they develop these to the 1st years. We have two classes: One that focuses on risk behaviours (smoking, drugs, relationships, etc) to the 1st years, and the other class where the students are designing a board game about equality. Now both groups are developing their own board games to use when delivering their own sessions.

Young Mums

Another project I’m helping to develop is Fast Forward’s Parent Peer Project, which will promote health and wellbeing amongst young mums and their children. Initially the project focused on alcohol and tobacco issues, but following feedback it became clear that the mums wanted to shift the focus slightly to make it even more relevant to them and their children. Once the parents are trained up, possibly in collaboration with Stepping Stones, they’ll deliver sessions to other young parents to promote health and wellbeing even further around Edinburgh.

Confidence

During this project I’ve increased my confidence with speaking in public, delivering activities, taking on the role of leader, designing and developing games and activities, and engaging with high school students. I know it sounds like this sort of things comes naturally to some people, but the truth is you build up to have all these abilities. It worked for me and it can work for anyone!  For my part, there’s a lot of research and imagination required, and I’ve acquired a lot of new skills and knowledge along the way. All in all, working with Fast Forward has been fun, interesting and exciting!

If you would like to learn more about the work at Boroughmuir or the Parent Peer Project, please contact Chiara at admin@fastforward.org.uk.