Family Focus – A Case Study

Last week we shared with you a brief introduction to our Family Focus programme that runs in North West Kent. Below is a case study, we hope it will help you to understand more about the programme, but as always, if you have any questions, you can either leave a comment, or contact us direct.

The young person was referred to Family Focus due to unsettled and disruptive behaviours at primary school. The young person spent a lot of the time out of the classroom as there was disruption to the learning of peers. The young person’s Mum showed concern over the approaching transition into secondary school and did not hold a lot of hope for it to be a success.

When we approached the mum about Family Focus she was pleased that there would be support offered to her and her child as it was a new experience for her too. The young person was worried about secondary school and the expectations. The young person settled in fairly well but still showed signs of unsettled behaviours.

During Family Focus the young person was given targets that were relevant, highlighting areas that needed to be improved on. The targets were a mixture of input from school, Mum and the young person. There were also targets to work on at home that were discussed and decided by the young person and mum.

Each week during target reflection the young person gave an honest account, positive and negative, about how the week had gone. Support was given to discuss what went wrong allowing the young person to identify solutions that could be implemented for success the following week. The young person really listened to the group advice, peers and parents, using the best advice and putting it into practise.

During activity time, particular attention would be paid to chosen targets. If the group began to go off track, this would be addressed within the group. The young person responded really well to this and very quickly was able to learn and put in strategies that worked. The reports from the school were all very positive to the extent the young person that had been highlighted as vulnerable had now become a successful student. Mum was very surprised that she was not receiving the negative phone calls home that she was anticipating!

The young person enjoyed the group environment to practise skills to show that they could be done and to receive good comments. This boost gave the young person the confidence to help others, supporting them with their targets and encouraging them with their behaviour.

When it came to the end of the course, the young person was very supportive introducing the new students to the group and explaining how it works. The young person regularly pops in to visit and has continued to set targets when they feel they need to. The facilitators, Julie, Nikki and Lucy are very proud of the young person!

Quote from a parent

“It has been a pleasure to work with the team. I have enjoyed everything and it was nice to have people who understand to talk to. My child’s attitude and behaviour has improved so much, they have learnt the ability to work with people and how to control their temper. I have learnt how to help my child achieve their goals and to listen to them”.

Quote from a student

“I wish I could carry on with Family Focus, I think I have learnt how to hold things in like bad comments. My mum has learnt how to listen to me”.

Quote from school

“Joining Family Focus allowed the young person and mum to build a more positive relationship. It has helped to calm him and allow him to settle in to the new school”.

Family Focus

The Family Focus initiative and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) supports teaching and learning at Orchards Academy and are considered to be vital components.

Year 7 students and their families have been involved in this programme. The benefits have included either increased or maintained attendance, strategies put in place for young people which enable them to better manage their own approach to learning and most vital of all support for parents who are struggling to cope with the demands of their son/ daughter moving to secondary school.

It is believed that the expansion of the project to offer more widespread and in depth CBT will meet what is a very pressing need amongst those who have transferred or who are transferring to secondary school. Although it has only been in place for a short time the programme is already a vital tool in ensuring that young people with a wide range of problems find a solution to their issues before they become over whelming.

Resilience: Dr M Ungar

We have found this video by Michael Ungar really useful as it defines resilience using the complexity of someone’s life. Let us know your thoughts in the comments box below.

 

 

 

Young Evaluators

We say all the time how young people are designing, delivering and evaluating our project, but what does that actually mean?

In March this year we invited a large group of young people to Swattenden for the day. It was a fun day, well, if you like rain and mud…..ok so everyone got a little mucky because someone forgot to tell everyone to bring boots (ahem!)…

Moving on. The day was led by Juli Dosad introducing evaluation to young people in the hope that they may sign up to become an evaluator for HeadStart Kent. Many did.

June 27th found the team busy learning about methods of evaluation, and beginning to think about how, and what they could evaluate in HeadStart Kent.

‘It has been a really good day. It’s been interactive, fun and its been good to meet new people.’ Jade, 15 (NWK)

July 4th was planning day.

The team have decided they shall be evaluating the #digitaldetox event taking place on 18th July, as well as coping packs.

We hope to hear from the group shortly about their thoughts of the training and planning so far, and what they hope to learn.

So what are the guidelines for Phase 3?

Big Lottery Guidelines for Phase Three

In order for HeadStart Kent to move to the next stage of the project (Phase Three), Big Lottery have set some standards they expect us to meet. We need to prove to them why we’re up to this challenge, in order to receive funding for HeadStart Kent to hit the ground running with Phase Three in August 2016. The Big Lottery have told us they want:

• Confidence in the HeadStart programme (so everyone knows what HeadStart’s aims are locally, we know which young people we are supporting and what we would like their outcomes to be).
• Confidence in local leadership (leaders are committed to the programme and HeadStart runs smoothly day to day).
• Confidence in the programme being sustained for years to come (we need to be clear how HeadStart will be carried on beyond the first stage).
• Confidence in the way the programme operates (a clear plan is required for the first 18 months of Phase Three, including details on what we expect to spend on each bit of the programme).

What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

YP Meeting in NWK 22nd June

Young people are meeting in North West Kent to learn share, and shape HeadStart Kent.

One activity they took part in was to identify what they felt were the most important activities taking place in North West Kent as part of HeadStart. The groups were split in two, and both groups identified the same top four; They identified, Family Focus, Trained staff, Safe Spaces and awareness and training for young people in resilience and wellbeing.

‘I’ve had a great night! I’ve learnt that peoples’ needs vary within age ranges and there are support networks available to everyone you just have to look and know people who know’. Young Person (NWK)

During another activity the group were asked ‘Imagine you have money to spend in NWK to improve the emotional wellbeing and mental health of young people and families. What would you spend it on? The list was quite extensive:

• Workshop weekend on mental health – dragons den for YP to pitch their ideas
• Mental health teaching
• Online forums – working closely with mental health charities
• 24/7 help/drop ins
• GP training
• Make services better and 24 hour
• Volunteer to help families in need
• Buy things to make staff decorate Safe Space
• Posters to show your safe space to others
• Buy things for schools and youth clubs
• Make your city more alive
• Build more safe spaces in schools and colleges
• Support networks
• Residential and trips making happy memories to cheer you up

They also identified a need to communicate with others about where to look for support.

‘I learnt about some mental health services and organisations that help you.’ Young Person (NWK)

In another activity they considered what was missing by considering the following:

‘If only in school there had been…’

‘If only at home there had been…’

‘If only my peers had been..’

‘Tonight I looked at ways to help people with mental health problems and how I can help them. I also found out which places are the most helpful for helping people in certain age groups. I learnt that bananas are classed as a herb and a fruit as they grown on a plant which is herbaceous. Bananas are also distantly related to ginger!’ Young Person (NWK)

Originally posted 24th June 2015

Social Marketing 17th June

We met last night at the Quarterdeck Youth Centre as the social marketing group to discuss blogging.

Well, actually the plan was to run a blogging workshop to build everyone’s confidence, but it quickly became apparent that we needed to understand blogging and vlogging as a whole.

We talk about blogs, and vlogs, a lot. We have attempted to make vlogs, but couldn’t stop giggling, so starting with blogs seemed to be the obvious solution. Accept, how many of us have ever read a blog, let alone written one?!

Our aim, is to have young people writing the blogs. Not because we don’t want to, but because everything we do is ‘co-produced’. Basically we do everything together, and where possible we let young people take the lead. After all, they know what we should be saying, how we should be saying it, and as they have proved with the campaign they (the SM group) have designed, they also have brilliant ideas!

So we decided the best place to start would be to write a purpose statement – so what are we writing and why? We explored who the audience would be, and what we would be sharing….there was a purpose statement at the end of the meeting, but it’s not right.

Sometimes we have so much to achieve we lose sight of why we are doing it. So we just stop, and then return once we have all had time to think. That’s ok though, that’s part of learning.

‘I got confused as I didn’t know what a blog was, but I kinda knew by the end.’ Ben, 15 (Thanet)

We will meet again on July 1^st. This time round we are all coming to share our examples of blogs and vlogs that we have found. We will explore what we like about them and why. We will look at this blog, is any of it working, and if so, why?

We will at some point soon be re exploring vlogs, as the group as a whole felt that this was definitely the preferred method of communication. Watch this space.

Originally posted 18th June 2015

Social Marketing 4th June

Last week the social marketing group met in Margate and as always it was a very busy meeting.

The Project Officer had met with Amelix, the provider for the main social marketing campaign, and had a few ideas to run by the group.

Firstly, it was confirmed that the Skills Roadshow, the Thanet Day, and the Canterbury event would be taking place. These were all ideas that had been developed by the group so it was exciting to learn that these were being taken forward.

The main focus of the conversation was around the Canterbury event, once known as No Technology Day – would it be ok if it was re branded Digital Detox. Furthermore, can we make it an overnight camping event? The group approved all of the changes.

Next on the list was The Pledge.

The Pledge was put forward by Amelix as an alternative to approach to the ice breaker sessions that had initially been explored.

Basically, there are a series of statements that are on a certificate. This will have a tear off slip on the bottom. You read the statements, sign the tear off slip and place the slip in the box. You keep the certificate and are then given a wristband. These will be available in schools, where we hope to have assemblies that support the pledge, and also at events and community centres.

So how did the group get involved. Well firstly, they had to agree they were happy to move forward with the pledge. Next, they looked at the wording of the statement’s and re wrote them.

The next stage was to consider which hashtag they wanted for the pledge. To do this they came up with many ideas and we put them on the board. Whilst these ‘rested’ they made a decision on colours. Finally they returned to the hashtag and chose their top three.

We cant share any more than this at this stage, but keep an eye out for the

launch!

Originally posted 8th June 2015

Knowledge Seminar 20th May 2015

This Seminar was focussing on what is happening in Kent and how do we provide evidence for this.

Each project from within HeadStart Kent gave a presentation: Thanet Restorative Approaches; Canterbury Penn State Resilience Programme; North West Kent Safe Spaces; Resilience Mentors; Social Marketing and the Digital World.

Each project talked about how they see resilience fitting in with their work, what they have been working on locally and any challenges they have faced. We then used the Domains framework to brainstorm and map each project’s activities and how they impact each bit of the Domains. We asked questions like how does the Thanet project boost young people’s talents and interests? How does Social Marketing affect education? Does the North West Kent project help young people with friendships? Does the Canterbury project increase young people’s positive values? Do the Resilience Mentors help young people with a secure base?

This Seminar was a good opportunity to see where the different HeadStart projects fit into the Domains framework, where the gaps are and to ask what can we do to fill the gaps.

“Having attended all of the knowledge seminars so far, it is great to see the development in them, as a young person. I think it is good that us, as the older young people, have the opportunity to attend the more professional events and see the development in other parts of the project and I enjoyed being able to engage with adults which we might not usually get to, as they specialise in different areas than what we usually are.” Maddie, 18 (Swale)

Originally posted on 21st May 2015.

What is a ‘Knowledge Seminar’

We hold four Knowledge Seminars a year and these are run by lecturers from Canterbury Christ Church University and The University of Kent.

Schools, representatives from the voluntary and community services and staff from the NHS, Public Health and Kent County Council attend these Seminars, as well as young people. They help shape our understanding and learning about resilience and provide an opportunity for the different projects within HeadStart Kent and the staff attending these Seminars to explore how they are supporting young people’s resilience.

So far we have learnt that ‘resilience’ can be explained in many ways, but we need a definition for Kent that everyone can understand and work towards.

The lecturers showed us the Domains framework which can help us see where a young person needs more support with their resilience. The Domains are a secure base, education, friendships, talents and interests, positive values and sociable behaviour.

We have looked at measuring resilience and the challenges of this – how do we measure resilience? What tools should we use? Who do we measure?

Read the latest news from our knowledge seminar on 20th May here.