Space2Grow#26 – Additional Mental Health & Confidence Support

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Following the Space2Grow#20 – Main Grant 2021 round of funding, the main funder, Barnet Council Family Services, identified a number of submitted projects, with which they wanted to work to identify how longer term funding could benefit those projects.

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Following a process of submission of revised project plans, Barnet Council identified 4 projects which would be suitable, and committed a total of £82,730 to support 4 projects, who were invited to apply via invitation to this round of Space2Grow funding, which aims to support these projects for one year.

Details of the projects are:

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Chazak Limited - £25,000

Chazak is an educational charity that has been operating in Barnet since 2011. Through partnerships with schools and synagogues, Chazak organises activities and programmes for young people in Barnet to enrich them and make them better community leaders for the future.

 

‘The Warehouse’ is a volunteer-led project seeking to bolster the physical and mental health of young people in Barnet’s Jewish Community. The main objective of The Warehouse is to break the mental health taboo prevalent amongst the Sephardi Jewish Community (Jews of Middle Eastern & North African origin).

 

Chazak has over a decade of experience working with secondary schools in Barnet and our experiences highlight an emerging need for young people to have a safe space to go to outside of a formal educational or clinical environment to freely discuss mental health issues. We are aiming to develop emotional wellbeing and resilience in young people, assisting in resolving problems without the need for escalation to statutory services and interventions.

 

FUSE - £9,024

 

FUSE would like to begin a new and longer-term partnership with 4 young minds C.I.C. by creating a bespoke offer for children and young people who attend FUSE. Delivering a total of 12 workshop sessions which will span across the year starting in September. We will deliver workshops to children and young people that cover the following topics

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1. Getting to Know You - An introduction to Mental Health

2. Managing Stress & Anxiety- Coping and getting help

3. Understanding Anger & Conflict – Knowing your triggers and using tools to solve

conflict

4. Growth vs Fixed Mindset – Breaking barriers by taking control of your thinking

5. Resilience Building – Building confidence and learning from failures

6. Aim Higher- Exploring ambition and goal setting

Each workshop will be delivered once a month at both our Grahame Park and

Stonegrove sites. At the end of the programme, young people will receive a

certificate of participation and a workbook to continue with their personal

development.

 

Home Start Barnet, Brent, Enfield & Harrow - £20,000

 We want to improve the mental health and wellbeing of families with young children and adolescents. Through our work with families, we have seen that there is stigma around mental health issues within some BAME communities, particularly South Asian, Black African and Caribbean communities, which can deter young people from sharing their challenges and, therefore, prevent them from getting the right support when they need it most. Our proposal is to tackle stigma within these communities by raising awareness of child and adolescent mental health, working directly with parents in community and religious settings.

 

Delivering to Families: The Community Worker will develop relationships with communities of interest by liaising with local community and faith organisations, secondary schools and religious establishments such as mosques and churches. A key relationship will be with community and faith leaders. The Worker will deliver a programme of awareness raising to parents’ groups, tackling the myths and stigma around mental illness, and signposting to where they can seek further help and support.

 

We will run at least 10 awareness raising workshops over a period of 6 months, in a range of different settings. We will make contingencies for the COVID-19 situation and will run online sessions where necessary. We anticipate groups size will vary according to the setting, from 6 people in coffee mornings and home-settings to up to 30 people in church and mosque settings.

We will design a bespoke programme, to be delivered with the support of community leaders, that will build parents’ understanding of key mental health issues and give them the confidence to make a difference in young people's lives. The sessions and will offer a brief understanding and knowledge of:

• • Child and adolescent mental health

• • Developmental processes and changes in relationships that take place during adolescence

• • Ways of supporting young people to navigate the challenges they face

• • How parents can promote positive mental health in their children

• • Guidance for further support, including self-help resources, through their school, the NHS

 

Barnet Carers Centre - £28,706

Our 'Enhancing Young Carers Confidence programme' seeks to enable young carers to achieve better outcomes within the personal and academic spheres, highly affected by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. It will support young carers to become more self-confident, improve their self-esteem, develop social skills and enjoy a happier life as a result. 

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The programme will be run as continuation of our previous Young Carers Wellbeing and Resilience programme, successfully delivered throughout 2021 and funded by S2G#12, but with new additional elements aimed at complementing the academic support provided through qualified one to one tuition, through one to one and group mentoring. It also aims at creating a wider forum for teachers and schools' staff to engage and discuss about challenges encountered in identifying and supporting young carers as well as sharing best practice.   

One of the greatest effects of the current covid-19 pandemic on young carers have been the negative impact in their scholar life; disengaging with their studies, peers and trusted adults, widening existing academic gaps and undermining their motivation and confidence. With this project we aim at addressing these challenges and rebuild their confidence. 

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The project will provide a safe space for young carers to have opportunities to grow, learn, build skills, feel valued and recognised and, ultimately improve their quality of life. It will be a space for them to feel supported but to contribute their views too, to be simply seen as ordinary children and young people, rather than just as young carers, who have many strengths and also have to deal with challenges. It will be a space to celebrate their achievements. It is a space for them to shape and being active leaders of their own success and progress.

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The project

1. The project will deliver three elements of support: tuition, mentoring and a school advisory group;

2. The tuition element will be delivered in partnership with our current partner ‘Express Tuition’, Young carers will be referred by members of the young carers team. Individualised support will be provided by an allocated tutor who, in collaboration with the young carers will develop a bespoke learning plan;

3. The mentoring element will be provided by members of the young carers team. It will complement the support that each young carer would have received through tuition to address any anxieties that may be impacting on their self-esteem and school’s performance; to strengthen life skills and regain undermined confidence. Group mentoring is aimed to be delivered to young carers of similar group ages to address common barriers and difficulties as well as to facilitate a space for socializing and support one another. One to one mentoring will be available if this is the option that best serve the needs of the young person;

4. The project intends to engage a wider audience of schools’ teachers and support staff, in discussions about best practice to support young carers in all the wellbeing areas, improve, and widen early identification and support.