WAY Forward Couselling (360G-EssexCF-A500170)
Funding Organization
£5,000
Recipient Organization
To help pay for a confidential counselling facility for young people attending the youth club and those attending the local secondary academy
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Grant Details
| Amount Applied For | 5000 |
| Amount Awarded | 5000 |
| Award Date | 2019-02-14T00:00:00+00:00 |
| Beneficiary Location: Country Code | GB |
| Beneficiary Location: Geographic Code | E01021817 |
| Beneficiary Location: Geographic Code Type | LSOA |
| Beneficiary Location: Name | Epping Forest 008E |
| Grant Programme: Code | 2018/19 |
| Grant Programme: Title | Wilkinson Family Fund |
| Impact Category | Advance people's physical and mental health, wellbeing and safety |
| Last Modified | 2021-04-29T00:00:00+00:00 |
| Planned Dates: Duration (months) | 11 |
| Planned Dates: End Date | 2020-02-28T00:00:00+00:00 |
| Planned Dates: Start Date | 2019-03-01T00:00:00+00:00 |
| Primary age group | Young People (13 – 18) |
| Primary beneficiary | Children and Young People |
| Primary ethnicity | White British |
| Primary issue | Mental health |
| Recipient Org: Charity Number | 1071248 |
| Recipient Org: Company Number | 03325776 |
| Recipient Org: Description | Waltham Abbey is a town of considerable deprivation. One of the 4 wards in the town is the 3rd most deprived area in Essex. It suffers from broken families, low educational attainment, youth crime and unemployment. A considerable percentage of the District’s NEET’s live in the town. The sole local secondary school receives Pupil Premium for over 30% of its pupils to close the gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged young people. Waltham Abbey Youth 2000 (WAY 2000) provides a community resource and seeks to improve sporting, leisure, cultural, education and employment opportunities for the young people of Waltham Abbey. We believe that all our young people deserve a safe and healthy environment, should have facilities which enable them to make gainful use of their leisure time, should understand their duties and responsibilities both to themselves and the community at large and take responsibility for their own actions. WAY2000 is committed to supporting and realising these aspirations by providing a safe, attractive and affordable social environment with a choice of opportunities together with a counselling service. We provide a wide range of quality facilities and opportunities at our youth centre for 2 age ranges: Yip Yop Youth for 7 to 11 year olds and New Images for school years 7 to 11. There is a wide variety of activities at the centre including table tennis, table football, air hockey, games consoles e.g. Xbox, Wii, PS3 etc. Arts and Crafts and a computer suite. These facilities encourage children and young people to interact and socialise with their peers in person rather than sit at home on their mobile phones etc. Various one off activities are organised during the holidays including an Activity Day at Stubbers Adventure Centre, Dodgeball Sessions, visit to the Fire Station etc. WAY2COOK our very popular cookery club focusing on healthy eating and balanced diets is due to be re-opened shortly having now raised sufficient funding to cover costs. Whilst this facility is restricted due to the kitchen space, it has attracted a wide variety of young people including sufferers of aspergers syndrome and autism who mix well with the other participants. The facility was set up in 2013 following a very successful cookery session run by Epping Forest District Council as part of their Summer Programme and following statistics issued by Essex County Council shortly afterwards highlighting an obesity issue amongst the young people of Waltham Abbey. Recipes include burgers etc. but these are made with very low fat meat and are a healthy version. They are always enjoyed by the young people. In addition to the wide variety of activities & leisure facilities provided at our youth centre in Brooker Road, we run a highly acclaimed Counselling Service. WAY Forward Counselling seeks to improve emotional well-being and/or mental health amongst vulnerable young people aged 11-18, with family members if appropriate, together with group work involving younger children to improve self-esteem and self-confidence to lead to improved attainment and ambition for the future and to prevent them from spiralling downwards into self-harming actions, drugs and criminal activities. Having involved parents and family members for some years, with the feedback from them, it is clear that parents realise that there is something causing their child anxiety but do not know how to deal with it. Many contact our counsellor because they feel that CAMHS do not understand their needs. They cannot get help from the local health centre as it has no provision for mental health services for young people and they also make referrals to our counsellor recognising the impact it has on the young peoples' wellbeing and lives . All of this has resulted in us providing a Parent Drop-In facility at our centre to enable parents to come and chat about issues they are experiencing with their children. We now provide this on a weekly basis to meet a much higher demand than was originally anticipated and have developed it to include a variety of activities encouraging relaxation in addition to the counselling and advisory service. The Parent Drop-In facility has highlighted that the parents are experiencing personal issues such as partnership splits and domestic violence which are having a detrimental effect on the children and young people in the families. Our Counsellor helps them cope with their situations and is able to signpost the parents to other organisations who can help and advise with issues such as finance and housing. Numerous young people are tell our Counsellor that they have nowhere quiet at home where they can complete their homework. This means that they fall behind with their lessons, fail exams and their futures are ruined. As a result of this we are now developing a Homework Club. Mental Health issues amongst young people and the lack of support for them is currently headline news. It was recently reported that more than half of prisoners had been excluded from school at some point. Our Counsellor’s work at King Harold Academy, the sole secondary school in the town, has been recognised as improving classroom behaviour and unauthorised absences which otherwise would often lead to exlcusion. Our facility helps to prevent this situation in Waltham Abbey. We have been providing these services for 25 years and continually develop them to meet the needs and aspirations of the young people in the community. Hundreds of young people have benefited resulting in them achieving more academically than they originally expected and giving them greatly improved life chances rather than ending up homeless living on the streets, on drugs or involved in criminal activities as a way of escapism. The value of the facilities and services WAY2000 provides for the benefit of the community is recognised by Waltham Abbey Town Council and Epping Forest District Council who support the Charity in a variety of ways. WAY 2000 is one of the charities based in Essex to be nominated for a Queen's Award for Voluntary Service in recognition of the value of our facilities and the services we provide.. |