Community Support for Young People

Tier 1: Streetwork

Project Workers and trained volunteers meet with young people to build relationships, give information and provide support on a range of young people’s issues and services, as well as providing our sexual health services, (pregnancy testing and condom distribution) on an outreach basis.

Streetwork allows workers to work with young people on their own territory, be proactive and keep up to date on local trends and community issues. The WEB workers can be seen on the streets four times per week, during lunch times and in the evening.

Streetwork is conversation led, with the workers using skills in informal education to provide an informal and confidential service.

Tier 2: Drop-In

The local Project bases provide an informal point of contact for young people to access support from workers, where trusting relationships are built and where education is led by conversation.

We offer a range of services from information on drugs and alcohol, sexual health and mental health to the distribution of condoms, (using a managed distribution approach called the "C" Card), pregnancy and Chlamydia testing.

Young people can find out about ways to get more involved with the Project and other community activities.

Young people can volunteer their time to support the development of the Project. Of course, they can just come in and share their news with the workers and meet each other.

Tier 2: Social Education/ GroupWork

Project Workers work with local primary and secondary schools to offer external support to the sexual health and drug education programmes, outlined in the school curriculum.

We plan sessions in response to the main types of questions we get from young people on the street and in the base. Project Workers are able to use their local knowledge to ensure sessions are topical and very much relate to the lives of the local young people.

Tier 3: One-to-One Support

We provide a confidential counselling skills support service to young people, operated by COSCA accredited members of staff.

We receive referrals from a range of services including Social Work, Criminal Justice, Health Workers, School staff and other voluntary sector services. However, the majority of our referrals continue to be self-referrals from young people who have come to know the workers through our work in local schools, Street-work and
Drop-ins.

Support can be given as a one-off, or on an ongoing basis depending on the young person’s needs.