Heads Up Lifeskills Programme

Aim

Continue award winning work with Young People suffering Hidden Harm, to build resilience and enable them to make better life choices.

We have identified the need in the Local Area for a life skills programme for young people experiencing Hidden Harm, living with Parents/Carers with significant Alcohol and/or Substance misuse.

We have been running this Life Skills Programme for the past 3 years and it has exceeded our expectations in referrals, confirming that there is still a great need for our services,  but we lack the funding to continue with this work.  The feedback we have received from the young people and the organisations who refer them, has been extremely positive and evidenced in the benefits already seen.

Secondary Schools that we are currently working with have a waiting list of young people to participate in this Unique Programme of work.

Young people from a Hidden Harm background can be affected by emotional, cognitive, and behavioural issues. There is often substance misuse, anti social behaviour, poor educational attainment, interrupted education and socialisation and social isolation by the young people, often without the opportunities that other young people their age may have to promote healthy lifestyle choices. The behavioural issues can lead to exclusion from school or issues with the Police and Youth Offending Service which can lead to lack of education that can limit life experience, prospects and opportunities.  

We need to raise £10,000 to keep this programme going for another six months.  This will fund two Specialist Substance Misuse members of staff to continue delivering important life skills training to vulnerable young people. The Programme of work is designed to build resilience, empower the young person with the skills to cope with their home life in a positive way, and enable the young person to use the tools to make better life choices for themselves. We work in partnerships with other organisations and we sign post young people for further help where appropriate. We are adept at networking and partnership working for the benefit of the young person.

Each session is for a group of  eight young people

The course covers six main topics;

Emotional Intelligence – identifying emotions and working with the emotions especially anger

Alcohol Awareness – staying safe (health, social and legal),

The Addictive Brain – Age and understanding appropriate

Substance Misuse – the facts (focusing on substances relevant to each group, but including health, social and legal implications)

Restorative Justice - Victim Awareness & Anti-Social Behaviour – The ripple effect,  ASBOs and the law

Effective Communication – how to communicate effectively

Every session is run in a relaxed environment where the young people feel comfortable and confident to ask questions and talk about issues (Young people are made aware that safeguarding policies apply). We provide the facts and explore options with them, developing their ability to make their own choices.  Every session is fun and effective as we tailor the activities for each group to ensure the maximum benefit for the group.

The program is eight sessions and once completed the young people have the opportunity to become Peer Facilitators where they attend training to deliver the sessions themselves alongside PYP staff.  This course gives them presentation skills, communication skills, basic health & safety and safeguarding as well as confidence and experience.  We also provide references for them when applying for colleges or jobs.  This has proved very popular and three of our Peer Facilitators won the Health & Well Being Award at the Vale Youth Awards 2014.  All young people attending the course receive In House Certificates.

We will work with the Safer Vale Partnership including Youth Offending Service, Local Schools and Education, who are aware of this Programme of work.   All young people who have been referred previously, have been referred by local schools, Youth Offending Service (Prevention), PRU (Pupil Referral Unit, for young people excluded from school).  Young people can also self refer.  There is currently a waiting list for young people to attend this Unique Life Skills Programme. 

We  will deliver the training in local secondary schools, Pupil Referral Units, and Youth Provisions. We are mobile and can deliver the training to areas of need.

We will provide training for teaching staff on Hidden Harm, and Alcohol and Substance Awareness.

The results have been very good so far, our aims are;

keep vulnerable young people in school

keep vulnerable young people safe

provide them with positive coping strategies

Increase peer facilitators and volunteers

Motivate each young person to create a positive plan for their lives

Provide young people with new and relevant skills

We have had tremendous feedback here are just a few;

I am writing this in support of the excellent work The Penarth Youth Project has done with the students at Barry Comprehensive School.

They have worked with the students and built relationships with them where the students feel safe. This has given the students a chance to be able to disclose issues that they may not have had the opportunity or the confidence to do. This has meant that the Penarth Youth Project has been able to sign post where and when appropriate, giving students the best support possible. Which in turn has allowed them to go on to give them the opportunity to succeed with their opportunity.

Some of the students have gained better grades in their exams while others have gone on to further education.

The students have learnt how to deal with issues in a positive way as well as learning to work with others and appreciating other people's point of view. These are all great life skills.

The students have a sense of belonging and that they are not on their own that there are people with the same issues. So they also learn empathy, sympathy and team building.

The Penarth Youth Project have been working in the school for a number of years so have great relationships not only with the students but also staff who all value the work they do.

​S. Neilson

Pupil Support Coordinator,Barry Comprehensive School ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

We were fortunate to receive intervention from the Heads Up term during the summer term.

Our year 10 and 11 students within the Learning Support Department are completing units of work for their Personal Social Development Examination course . One of the units of work covered is Dealing with Problems in Daily Life.

The Heads Up team provided six one hour sessions with each year group. They covered elements on;

Communication

Recognising Anger

Handling Anger

Antisocial behaviour

Alcohol Awareness

Victim and Community Awareness

They were extremely professional and  geared it to the level of the boys level of need with interesting and imaginative ways of explaining the elements covered.   All boys without exception enjoyed the sessions and we were able to provide written and pictorial evidence of their sessions which were included in their coursework.

We are hoping to offer the same course from the Heads Up team again this academic year.

Many thanks  for all of their hard work.

Liz Zyjewski Head of Learning Support

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Many of the young people attending this course have said that this group is the only reason they come to school.

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This project closed unsuccessfully on 4th March 2015