Because many of our young people are placed individually it is vital that we
encourage them to socialise and integrate into a normal community and make
a positive contribution to it.
This can be a long drawn out process especially for young people who have been
isolated for a large part of their lives.
We positively encourage our young people to take part in Community events,
including national fund raising days like Comic Relief.
These befrienders play a vital role, both in terms of adding strength to our child protection practice and as a link to the wider community. Young People see them as advocates and as people who actually want to spend time with them. A befriender will meet with a young person once or twice a week, as part of their programme and will organise outings and events to suit the young person.
Family, regardless of history is important to most of our young people. Appropriate family contact is positively encouraged and all of our facilities are available for family weekends and days out. We have successfully re-introduced many young people to their families using these “neutral venues” as a base for family work. We will go to great lengths to enable contact to take place - anywhere!