Every Young Person Matters
Providing individual support within a community-based youth work setting makes sense
How and why
Our philosophy | Potential not problems | Solutions | Serious about support | Terms of engagement | Creativity | Context | Jason's story | Refer a young person
The Citadel believes individual support for young people is enhanced when:
- There are opportunities for the young person to experience positive relationships with adults and other young people outside of their 1:1 support, allowing them to see the support as an additional entitlement rather than an embarrassment
- The young person feels that 1:1 support is a positive choice they make for themselves
- There is a commitment to work at the young person's pace, which may require more than a short-term arrangement
- Information sharing between professionals always puts the young person's best interests first, and involves the young person as much as possible
We offer individual support for the young people using our open access youth clubs when we see they may benefit from this
We accept referrals from local agencies and schools for young people who need individual support, and then welcome these young people to our open access provision
We believe readiness and flexibility are key to a young person-centred approach
Potential not problems
At the core of all of our work with individual young people is belief in their potential. One of our goals in every relationship is to ensure that young people start to believe in their own potential too.
Solutions
All young people have the potential to identify their own solutions to the challenges they face. These solutions may be within themselves or they may be solutions that other services or other people can provide.
Our work helps young people consider options, choices and ideas.
We help young people set personal goals and support their journey towards solutions.
When a young person needs help to involve other people in finding solutions, we will advocate with them, or if necessary for them, to get the help they need.
Serious about support
The Citadel's vision is to enrich the lives of young people and our community. If a young person is unhappy, feels uncertain about their future or feels unsupported, the Citadel shares responsibility, with our community, for making a positive difference.
We cannot make a difference by accident. The Citadel's staff team uses a range of skills and approaches, together with sound experience, to devise individual support measures and club opportunities for young people. We plan carefully to achieve better outcomes for the young person and we monitor that we are achieving them.
Terms of engagement
Young people have limited control over their lives in most circumstances, but for young people who are experiencing problems or whose families are struggling, this feeling of powerlessness causes great distress. Suddenly, strangers are talking about them, asking them questions and making decisions about their needs. When the Citadel already knows a young person, our role is to help them to participate in these decisions and, as far as possible, to feel that they can make choices about the direction of their own lives. When the Citadel begins work with a young person referred to us who we don't yet know, our priority is to build a relationship in which they work with us by choice.
Creativity
Every young person brings unique experiences and perceptions of the world, as well as their own personalities and strengths. We make no apologies for avoiding the ‘sausage machine' approach to support - we will take the time to get to know young people individually and in our clubs, and use our flexibility and creativity to support and challenge in a way that suits them, enabling them to find their own solutions and achieve their potential.
Context
The day to day experiences of young people are what shape their lives. Out community-based approach ensures we provide individual support within a wider range of positive opportunities that young people can access. Our community-based position also means we know local partners well, helping us to share information and to work together with others, where young people feel they need different opportunities.
Jason's story
"Jason first attended Citadel open access youth clubs as a troubled child who had great difficulty fitting in with activities and getting on with other children and adults - problems that were also making his learning at school suffer. We knew through our relationship with the local social workers that Jason lived in a chaotic home where both parents were alcoholic. Our priority during this period of his life was to allow him slowly to learn to trust us, to keep an eye on his wellbeing, and take Jason home after clubs so we could see that he would be safe that night, which also helped us to get to know his parents. Our patience paid off with Jason's improved communication and participation in clubs, and his gradually developed confidence.
Over the years Jason's home life caused great difficulty for him. He often spent periods of time in care. During his teenage years he had to cope with the death of one of his parents, which left the other parent barely managing alone, and Jason became a young carer ensuring his brothers and sisters had food, clean clothes and went to school. His own relationship with school and friends his own age suffered. By knowing Jason well, and being able to see the signs, the Citadel staff where able to allocate time for individual support for periods of time whenever life got too hard to handle for Jason.
The long term relationship between Jason and the Citadel was a central feature of this work - Jason could use this one-to-one support without having to re-tell his story over again to another ‘professional helper'. When life felt more under control, he could ease off from the individual help knowing that it would be there again if he needed it, without waiting for another professional to initiate a complicated referral process for him, to an agency he might not know.
The other important feature for Jason was that he belonged to the ‘Citadel' and everything else it has to offer - clubs, summer programmes, trips and activities. This gave him vital links to ‘normal' relationships and activities, where his off-days would be understood and his need to have times when he could forget life at home was also respected."
Refer a Young Person
Click here to find out how to refer a young person.
