Dave McNicholl is chief executive of Warrington Youth Club and writes a regular column for the Warrington Guardian.

SINCE March 2020, we have all become more confident on using video conferencing and Zoom, Teams and Google Hangouts have become common language.

Whilst life is returning to normal, there are legacies of the pandemic.

The need for businesses to spend significant amounts of money to transport their team members around the country and fund their accommodation and hospitality costs have reduced as more business is conducted in a more transactional, efficient manner with video conferencing.

As with many areas of public life, organisations supporting children and young people turned to the virtual world at the beginning of the pandemic and adapted their programme of support.

Organisations ran online quizzes, discussions, gym sessions, cookery classes, music lessons and many more.

It was clear that the lockdown was forcing us to engage with a broad range of online platforms in a new way.

Whilst the lockdown kept us apart, there was a real focus on communities and friends coming together virtually.

From our work at Warrington Youth Club, we are aware that there are many children and young people who are socially isolated, as a result of a range of reasons, access to transport, a local of self-confidence or self-esteem and a range of other reasons.

On Valentine’s Day we launched YOOF, a brand-new digital youth work virtual platform for children and young people aged seven to 25. The platform is developed by children and young people’s organisations from across Warrington and Cheshire for young people from across the county.

The concept is to provide access to digital content which is created by local organisations and gives parents peace of mind, knowing that their children are accessing safe, age-appropriate content.

We are not trying to encourage young people to spend lots of time on screens.

Each short video encourages young people to try a task, activity, challenge or game for themselves – a modern twist on the 80s kids TV programme Why Don’t You.

Although YOOF is being coordinated by Warrington Youth Club, Cheshire Community Foundation have funded the Cheshire-wide initiative, Assura and the Big Lottery Fund.

We would like to express our sincere thanks to local digital design agency Carpe Diem, who have gone above and beyond to produce a brilliant platform for children and young people.