Young People's Services
Young People’s Service
Impact’s Young People’s Services in Sussex aim to provide safe environments for young people aged 13-25 years where they will be respected, valued and can access advice, information and counselling services that are non judgemental and which support the promotion of good health, independence and learning.
We provide:
- Weekly drop-in facilities offering access to support, information and advice in a safe youth focussed setting
- Sexual health clinics and services
- Free and confidential counselling by qualified counsellors
- Specialist support for young people around education, employment and training which is run in partnership with Sussex Connections.
Impact is committed to involving young people in the design and delivery of young people’s services. In Brighton, the youth forum provides a structured format for input from young people.
“It's a brilliant place for young people and it's a good place to go if you are worried about anything.“
We're always looking for volunteers, with a little bit of patience and understanding who can help deliver these courses to the young people. Full training will be given. So if you've got a couple of hours a week to spare and enjoy working with young people, we would love to hear from you.
Services for young people and children include
- Open Door, Eastbourne
- Young People's Centre, Brighton
Last year
- Over 3606 visits were made by young people to our drop-in centres
- Over 350 young people used sexual health services
- 166 young people used the counselling services
- 75% were between 3-18 years old
- 25% were male
- 9% were from black & ethnic minorities
- 297 emergency food packs were distributed to young people in Eastbourne.
- 136 young people used IT facilities in Brighton
- There were an average of four visits per young person to address those complex issues.
Links
Connexions Sussex
www.connexions-sussex.org.uk
Equal Brighton and Hove
www.equalbrightonandhove.org
Impact is very grateful for support from the Equal project:
The Young People’s Centre (YPC) has secured additional funding to develop and deliver new innovative training and employment initiatives for young people. In partnership with Sussex Connections, we have employed two new specialist Equal/Connexions personal advisors (PAs) including a BME advisor and a mental health/LGBT advisor.
We are also the lead delivery partner for a new training and employment programme employing a part time volunteer project worker and a full time training and employment coordinator delivering a range of bite-sized training sessions for young people, taster employment fairs and matching young people with a volunteer key worker to enable vulnerable young people to progress into education, employment and training.
Both these initiatives will run through to July 2007
European Social Fund
www.esf.gov.uk
British Youth Council www.byc.org.uk
Children's Services
Whitehawk After School Project (WASP) is a well-established and highly valued community project. Since 2003, it has worked closely with families from the Whitehawk and Manor Farm Estates to develop services that meet their needs. WASP services include:
- An Ofsted registered after school club and school holiday playschemes
- Free activity workshops for the whole family
- Inclusive outreach play opportunities
- A free, open access youth club
- Facilitating child-centred family fun days
Children from this community do not always have the same opportunities in life as others.The level of deprivation is particularly acute with 3 super output areas that fall within the 4% most deprived nationally and 62% of children live in income deprived households.
WASP aims to makes a positive contribution to the regeneration of this community and improves life chances for residents by:
- Engaging children, age 4 -13, in activities which contribute to their education, health and the development of life skills.
- Providing flexible respite care and support that meets the needs of vulnerable families.
- Providing an affordable childcare service that removes barriers to accessing training and employment opportunities and enables families to achieve economic well being.
- Improving career choices for residents by providing supported volunteer placements, training and employment opportunities.
- Delivering family learning activities that develop awareness and engagement with positive lifestyles and promote social well-being.
- Increasing community networking on child related issues and resident involvement in the design and delivery of its services.
- Developing strong links with schools, voluntary and statutory organisations to maintain high standards of service delivery and work in partnership towards long-term sustainability.
Achievements
An excellent Ofsted report - The WASP after school club received four ‘Good’ ratings from Ofsted in October 2006 for ‘Helping children to be healthy’, ‘Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe’, ‘Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do’ and ‘Helping children make a positive contribution’.
Quotes from the report include:
“…children are well-supervised and safe at all times”
“…children are happy, relaxed and confident… They relate well to staff and to each other… indicating good, trusting relationships are built.”
“Staff are well trained and have a good working knowledge of how children learn through play.”
“Children are treated with respect and are made to feel good about themselves”
After school club and holiday scheme achievements, from September 2003 – March 2007, enabling:
- 215 children to access activities that increased their social, physical intellectual, creative and/or emotional skills
- 8 local young people to gain nationally accredited qualifications and increase their employability through volunteering placements.
- 4 young people to be employed by WASP.
- 31 East Brighton residents to secure employment or increase the amount of hours they work as a direct result of the service.
- 18 parents/carers to access training opportunities thereby gaining accredited qualifications and increasing their basic skills.
There is every reason to believe the new services will be just as successful with the first round of activity workshops in May attracting 70 new families!
Comments from parents:
"Without the club I would not be able to attend college. It has been a lifeline."
"If it wasn't for the after school club I couldn’t have gone back to work full time as I haven't got to pick my kids up and leave work early. I know my kids are safe and well looked after and this eases my working day. The workers correspond professionally no matter what problems they face with the children."
"The club has enabled me to go to college. As a single parent I could not afford to pay for an expensive club or childcare."
Links
Ofsted
http://www.ofsted.gov.uk
Brighton and Hove Children’s information service
http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk
The children's charity
Our Projects
We currently run 15 projects across Sussex.
For a complete listing of all our projects, please see our Services Directory.
Bridge the Gap
"In 1978 IMPACT’s original vision was to: 'Bridge the Gap'. That is to provide services for hard to reach, excluded communities and individuals across Sussex, to ensure access to services and support where there is clearly identified need. We continue to maintain this vision and I am continually inspired to see the range and quality of our services, the dedication of our staff and volunteers and the number of people we are able to help"
Mike Long, Chair
