The Big Lottery Fund has awarded Kent County Council £500,000 to help 10-14 year-olds in Kent to be more resilient. The money will fund a research project, delivered in partnership with services from across the county.
Our approach is to trial a range of new and evidence based programmes in specific localities; Thanet, Canterbury and North West Kent . We will support these programmes with Resilience Mentors, and a digital world project. and present our learning through Knowledge hubs.
We will work with partners including parents, young people and schools to see if the programmes are making an impact. We will continually review what the solutions are for building the resilience of Kent’s young people and families, and to support vulnerable groups to better cope with life’s challenges.
Young people in Kent have defined ‘resilience’ as the ability to be mentally strong enough to bounce back from problems in life.
10-14 year olds will be involved in every aspect of developing and delivering HeadStart Kent. They will help to:
- Identify the main problems their peer group face day-to-day
- Work with services to find solutions to these problems
- Test these solutions across three pilot projects in Kent
- Present findings to the Big Lottery Fund about the best ways to help 10-14 year olds be more resilient.
HeadStart Kent 