Source Youthwork (known as Wilmslow Youth) received a grant to develop two projects to enhance their offering. The new sessions have become hugely important to the young people who attend, and are now central to the charity’s purpose.
The grant from CCF was for two projects – the drop-in ROC Cafe, and Scope Workshops about emotional wellbeing.
We asked young people attending the ROC Cafe sessions to describe their experience in one word. The top five words used were: “Fun, Friends, Safe, Kind, and Accepting”. We offered the ROC Café provision in line with the project proposal, with young people able to socialise with friends, enjoy refreshments and engage in a variety of activities. Over half of our volunteers are now also trained as Mental Health First Aiders, increasing their ability to offer in-the-moment support and signposting to any young people who attended the café. One of the benefits of this year has been an increase in the number of young people we have been able to signpost to effective help as a direct result of them attending the cafe. Over 30 young people over this year went on to access our counselling service after making a disclosure to our cafe staff, who were able to show them how to access the support.
As we have recovered from Covid over this last year, funding for this project has enabled us to recruit, train, and support new volunteers, and we now have the largest volunteer base we’ve ever had. The wrap around care offered in this project has also been vital in supporting other aspects of our work, so young people don’t have to go without support whilst they wait for 1-to-1 therapeutic help.