Member News: Meet Break's Emotional Wellbeing team

This #CareDay19 we talk about our Staying on Track service

At Break, we make life better for vulnerable young people across East Anglia. We provide a range of services to help young people in care and moving on, children with disabilities and families who need support.

Today is #CareDay19 a celebrtion of care-experienced young people. We would like to showcase Break’s Staying on Track service. This service is available to young people who have left or are about to leave the care system. It aims to help young people to have more stability and support at what can be a scary time. Thanks to funding through the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Break is able to offer this free service to care leavers in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire.

The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation aims to improve the quality of life for people and communities throughout the UK by funding the charitable work of organisations that are building an inclusive, creative and sustainable society.

Break is delighted to have received funding from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and it helps the charity to continue to improve its provision for care leavers. Rachel Leslie, project manager, said “Care leavers were telling us that they needed more help in feeling prepared for independent living. They wanted to feel more emotionally ready and have links with other care experienced young people to help them. Thanks to Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Break is now delivering this vital support. It will help them to feel more confident going forward and help them move to independent living successfully.”

​The Emotional Wellbeing Service, delivered by Break Family Centre, is available to care leavers aged 16 and over. This support is to help care leavers prepare for transitions, such as moving into independent living, becoming a parent, or starting employment. Sessions will provide them with a safe and confidential space, tailored to meet the young person’s individual needs and preferences; this might be to help them understand and manage their emotions, process past experiences or develop positive coping strategies. This will enable them to feel more positive on a day-to-day basis, maintain healthy relationships, and successfully engage with education, employment or training. 

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Break’s Emotional Wellbeing team: left to right: Jessica Myhill, Fay Danesh and Laura Hughes

Break’s Emotional Wellbeing Practitioners work at a variety of locations across Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, here’s what they had to say this #CareDay19

“I like this service because it is reaching those young people who could potentially be missed and who do not meet the threshold for NHS mental health services. I feel it gives an important safe space for the young person to focus on their emotional wellbeing throughout the difficult transition from being in care to becoming an independent adult. This service is great because it is completely led by the young person and individualised to their needs.” – Jessica Myhill

“This service is a great, flexible way of working together with young care leavers, who might need some extra support. I think that historically there has been a gap in services for young care leavers and there is a real need for this service now. I really enjoy meeting with the young people each week and like the fact that we are able to get to locations close to where the young person is living. This helps the young people feel safe and relaxed in sessions.” – Fay Danesh

“Having worked with care leavers for a number of years, I’ve seen first-hand the impact it can have upon this particular group of young people if their emotional wellbeing is low, and I’m so pleased we’ve got funding to address this issue. I love that this service can be flexible to work around the young people. If a young person doesn’t want to ‘just talk’, we can do handmade projects together, play games, go for walks – essentially, anything that gives them a safe space to be heard.” – Laura Hughes

Source:
http://break-charity.org