Discover some of the brilliant projects being supported by our Community Fund
Last year we launched the SLN Community Fund. The fund gave six local community organisations the opportunity to secure funding worth up to £5000 towards projects designed to create opportunities and support for young people in the region….
At the end of June, we held a special celebration event at The University of Sussex to discover more about the initiatives that had been created and about the impact they’d had. We were blown away by the innovation at the heart of each project, as well as by the positive differences each had made.
Here we bring you a snapshot of what three of them have been doing to give you a feel for the amazing support that exists for young people and their families right here on our doorstep. And don’t forget to check out our July issue, when we’ll be giving you an insight into innovative projects run by four more local community groups supported in their work by the SLN Community Fund: Black, Minority Ethnic Young People's Project; Creative Waves, Extratime and Holding Space.
The Juno Project
The Juno project works with schools across West Sussex to support girls dealing with poor mental health manifesting itself in a number of ways from poor attendance at school to dangerous behaviours, self-harming, eating disorders and suicidal tendencies.
The Community Fund helped fund the ‘This is Me’ project – which involved small group work with up to six girls at a time over a series of weeks. During the workshops teams of facilitators helped girls explore issues like recognising harmful patterns in their life, addressing poor self-esteem, setting boundaries and taking responsibility, with the philosophy throughout being to Encourage, Enthuse and Empower.
Ruth from the Juno project told the event: ‘The workshops offered the girls a calm retreat from the chaos and enabled them to take stock and learn to love themselves just as they are. The results were transformative. We could see the girls growing in confidence each week and 72% reported an increase in their future aspirations as a result of participating.”
The SID Youth
The SID Youth has been running a wide variety of youth support initiatives for young people in Worthing and surrounding areas for the past two years, from HAF clubs and girls’ groups to knife crime workshops and employability advice sessions.
The SLN Community Fund enabled the popular youth group to ramp up the number of after school ‘Drop Ins’ it ran. The popular after school ‘Drop In’ sessions provide young people with a safe, fun after school space with team games, chill out zones, homework support, food and snacks.
Paul Reed, Director of The SID Youth, commented: ‘Young people have always really enjoyed our drop in sessions, but they have become particularly valued after the knifing that happened locally. That event made a lot of young people feel unsafe in their local environment. But they know that when they come here they’re in a safe, supportive, fun space.
“ It’s great to see how many very different young people come here and choose to hang out. Between 15 and 25 young people now regularly turn up to each of the drop in sessions that we run. For many it’s a real refuge. The one place that they feel truly comfortable to fully relax and be themselves.”
Click here to read our interview with Meet Scarlett Allan, a Project Administrator for The Sid Youth.
Friends, Families & Travellers
Friends, Families and Travellers (FFT) work to break down barriers and challenge stereotypes around Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities and work with around 4000 GRT young people each year to open their eyes to opportunities they might not otherwise have been aware of.
The SLN Community Fund supported the Five School Project, enabling FFT to work with five schools across Sussex: Hailsham Community College, Uplands Academy, The Bourne Community College, Robertsbridge Community College and Uckfield Community College.
In each school, FFT ran aspiration workshops for young GRT students to help them understand the wide range of post 16 opportunities open to them and also helped schools to create more GRT inclusive environments by delivering training to develop understanding of GRT communities.
FFT also worked with educators to create a bespoke GRT dedicated Level 2 Royal Society of Public Health (RSPH) qualification (equivalent to one GCSE) that all GRT students were encouraged to take.
The impact of the funding was significant with 11 GRT students opting to participate in the aspiration workshops and 38 successfully completely the new RSPH qualification. As a result of the initiative three schools have deepened their relationships with FFT and FFT has forged brand new, lasting relationships with two new schools in Sussex.
Check out our Spotlight interview this week to hear more about The SID Youth’s work from Scarlett who is a Project Administrator for the group. And don’t forget to check out our July issue, when we’ll be giving you an insight into innovative projects run by three more local community groups supported in their work by the SLN Community Fund….