HSYAReview2024 - Flipbook - Page 7
Surrey Care Trust
Bespoke Youth-West Molesey
Rape and Sexual Assault
Support Counselling
Our Steps to 16 alternative education
programme specialises in supporting
and reengaging 14- to 16 year-olds
struggling with mainstream education.
The students live with a range of needs
and challenges including problems at
home, low self-esteem, and poor social,
mental, and emotional health. Our high
tutor to student ratio supports the
holistic learning environment. The
curriculum is tailored to the specific
needs of each student, and the more
informal educational setting of our
Learning Centre in Woking helps
students to feel more at ease. With this
approach we aim to nurture the young
people’s social development and help
them achieve the best possible learning
outcomes.
We are an Anglican church that is
heavily focused on serving the local
community through youth and children’
s work. Although we are a Christian
organisation, many of our projects are
not evangelical as we want our
Community and Youth Hub to be a
space where people of all beliefs are
welcome. We are currently running 10
different youth sessions across 5 days a
week to cater for young people of
different ages and backgrounds. This
includes, a girl’s group, small group
hubs, youth drop-ins, and a music
project. We run sports activity days
during the half term holidays. All our
groups are free and open-access
sessions. We also provide some kind of
free food at each session.
Our HYSA grant will go towards our Youth
Counselling Programme; a free support
service for Surrey based survivors aged
13-18, who have experienced sexual
harm. This generous funding will
contribute to the recruitment of two
additional sessional counsellors to meet
a growing demand for counselling for
young survivors with increasingly
complex needs. Thanks to the HSYA, we
will be able to provide even more holistic
person-centred counselling for young
people who have experienced sexual
harm. Each client will receive between
12 and 16 sessions of one to one, trauma
informed counselling, delivered either
face to face or remotely to work around
school/college and work commitments.
The team encourages and enables
students to gain qualifications in core
subjects such as English and Maths
while the nurturing environment and
Life Skills curriculum (Healthy Living,
Domestic Cooking, Sport and Fitness,
Group and Teamwork, Preparation for
work and college, vocational activities,
art etc.) helps students develop strong
life skills as they transition into
adulthood.
We believe that relationship building is
absolutely crucial for curbing anti-social
behaviour and supporting the
vulnerable. It has been noted that there
is an increase in antisocial behaviour
generally due to lack of services for
young people prior to our project
starting 5 years ago. Locally there was
an increase in antisocial behaviour over
the lockdown period with instances of
criminal damage to buildings and
recreational cannabis use much more
noticeable in the area. We would like to
divert young people away from this by
making all of our activities attractive to
young people who might stumble
across us or be referred to us by the
local authority.
During 2023-2024, 27 students were
supported by the team, the most the
team have ever supported, indicative of
the increasing demand for services like
STEPS to 16. Out of the twelve year 11
students who took their exams all
successfully secured accredited
qualifications. 95% of STEPS to 16
leavers have gone on to further
education or into employment.
Demand for counselling support is
increasing annually, and we are expecting
this to grow significantly in 2024-2025.
Experiencing sexual abuse as a young
person can have profound and lasting
effects on both the survivor and their
family and friends. All the young people
we support are experiencing very poor
mental health as a result of the abuse
they have experienced; anxiety,
depression, PTSD, trouble sleeping and
substance abuse are also extremely
common. Low self-esteem is both
exacerbated by the trauma they have
experienced, or may have made them
vulnerable to abusive relationships
initially. Our young clients are also more
likely to suffer from suicidal ideation and
self-harm which often presents as a
coping mechanism.
As a result of HSYA funding we hope
that all the young survivors we support
through our Youth Counselling Service
will:
1 Experience a significant, measurable
improvement in their mental wellbeing
2 Feel safer and better able to cope with
aspects of every day life
3 Be able to return to school/college/
work/training.
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