A3 Project in Paulsgrove & Wymerming

The A3 Project is in the process of moving from the 147 Allaway Avenue office into Paulsgrove Community Centre where new office space has been secured.

Additional staff and more sessional workers mean that there are more resources to build upon current provision.  Future activities that are planned include mised sporting activities, arts and crafts, a football league for two age groups and a gold academy designed for a targeted group of young people that are not interested in team sports. 

Young Women's Group

Most of the young women involved in this group are beginning or completing the final year of their secondary school.  The project developed a program that was designed to introduce these young people into the employment world by familiarising them with the process.  We began with a session that explained the protocol of acquiring employment or further education and talked them through the entire process of CV's, agencies, finding employment, advertisements, job descriptions and application

We then led a workshop in which the young people created mock CVs and explained the different tools and techniques to ensure their CV stood out.  They designed the CVs around a mock job description that they would later be submitting for a mock application. We discussed employment laws and disrimination, what provisions employers need tomake for employees with disabilities, learning disabilities or specific needs.  This provided very beneficial because one of the young people was dyslexic and thought that she wouldn't get a good job or be able to go to college.  We explained there will always be agencies to help her and examined the process of employment and how the law protects her from discrimination.

The young people were instructed to have their mock applications completed and submitted by the closing date.  Then mock interviews were scheduled.  The interviews were conducted in a panel format.  There was also a role-play session regarding a situation they may encounter at their ew job.  Different interview tools and techniques were discussed. 

To conclude, all young people that completed the activities were then "hired" and invited to go on a "training course" to Thorpe Park.  The project was very successful and seemed to have a positive effect on the young people.

Contact Support Worker

EC Roberts Centre

A family started to have contact at the centre, Mum and two small children.  Centre staff noticed that Mum was struggling to keep both children entertained and that the older child was becoming angry and difficult in contact.  

The Contact Support Worker came alongside Mum and helped her to set up an area of the contact room before the children arrived so that she had lots of interesting toys to hand.  During contact CSW stepped in to model some play skills, when Mum was struggling, and re-engage the older child's interest.  At the next contact Mum and CSW set up the area again and Mum managed the contact without intervention from CSW.

After contact Mum said she had felt much more confident and had enjoyed playing with both children.

Primary Mental Health Project

Anna Walker left the BEST team in October 2007 to take up a post at the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service as a community nurse.

Anna would like to thank the BEST team for their support, encourgement and professional committment. Anna would also like to thank the 4 schools for their support, in particular, St Georges's Beneficial in Portsea for looking after her and welcoming her into their team. 

We wish Anna every success in her new post. 

 Early Years Nuture Support

A mother was refered to Karen Harland directly.  She has support from her Health Visitor but wanted to see someone more regularly.  Her youngest daughter (a twin) has severe epilepsy and was seen regularly by a paediatrician. 

The family (Mum, Dad and three young children) were squashed into a 2 bed roomed house with the twins sharing a room.  The youngest daughter often kept the other twin awake with her fits and therefore his behaviour became worse and worse.  Dad had gone back to work and Mum was finding it difficult to cope. 

Karen made a referral to the Family Fund for financial support for Mum to learn to drive enabling her to take her daughter to hospital more easily etc.  Karen also wrote a letter to the Council supporting a move to a three bedroomed property. Karen worked through the Parent & Child Game programme with Mum and supported her regularly for almost a year. 

The positive outcome from this has been that the family moved to a new 3 bedroomed property enabling the youngest son to have his own room and sleep issues were quickly resolved.  The children's behaviour has improved.

Mum has learned all the skills required to deal with any behaviour her children decide to throw at her, but generally their behaviour has greatly inproved.  Mum is a happy and confident parent.

Family Champions

The family are mum, dad and two children aged 7 and 9. Dad had an accident a few years ago and is on medication for pain relief and works full-time when he is able.  Mum works part-time. The were some financial concerns due to this.  The majority of the parenting is left to Mum. 

Support was put into place to help both parents with their children's behaviour and offer emotional support for Mum. 

Positive outcomes:

For the children: Their behaviour was address through boundary setting and using the time out method.  Also gave them a chance to talk about their Dad's accident and how this might be affecting them.

For the family: With ongoing support from Family Champions Mum is more able to address the behaviour of the children.  Mum had someone to listen to her when things were not going so well.  Mum felt more in control due to the support being offered on a weekly basis.  Dad and Mum felt more in control.

Mum and Dad feel they have regained their family life.  The children have responded well to the boundaries and time outs.  The family feel more able to understand how Dad's accident has affected them all.

SAXON SHORE INFANT SCHOOL -

Attendance & Behaviour Inclusion Worker Update

One of the children who left the school in 2006 returned at half-term having had a very poor record of attendance at the school he had been in.

We had supported the family through some very traumatic experiences.

When the EWO followed up his move, it was wonderful to be able to say that his attendance in the month since he returned has been 100%!

Volunteer Reading Help

A 10 year old girl with a reading age of 8 felt unhappy about reading and school.  When she started having sessions with a VRH helper she would guess whole phrases and did not understand punctuation.  Her negative "attitude" has decreased througout her reading sesions and she is confident in putting emphasis on words in the right places.  Her social skills have also improved substantially, she now likes to talk about her life in general and happily chats away to the volunteer.  She is now 111 and her reading age is now 10.5.

Update - VRH are introducing a ROAR (Reach Out and Read) training programme aimed at helping parents and carers read with their own children.