DISTRIBUTIONS


Targeted Youth Support


From Harrow's Youth Inclusion Support Panel (YISP)

and Hillingdon's Targeted Youth Support Team






support is given to young people (aged between 5 and 16) who are at risk of:
    exclusion from school,
    poor school attendance,
    anti-social behaviour

and teenage parents and young people at risk of being taken into care.

They focus on and help young people aged 5 to 16 and with a multi agency approach (including schools, medical agencies and police) and provide support to children and their families who are identified as being at risk of offending or anti social behaviour.

Targeted Youth Support teams work with their local Youth Offender Teams but are often based in schools where they are able to identify and help young people before they offend.

Targeted Youth Support teams' approach will often include:

Challenging poor behaviour directly by exploring more positive ways of living. Developing young people's social and emotional skills to enable them to make positive choices, manage change and navigate risks.

Helping to improve the way these young people communicate and interact with those around them.

Developing young people's aspirations, help them to achieve and feel positive towards learning by helping them to become engaged.

Providing family support to work along side the young person's action plan, to ensure the whole family are involved in the process.

How Frustrated Communication found these Targeted Youth Support teams -

In late 2007 the Rotary Club of Pinner helped to set up a unique and specialised library in Harrow's Youth Offender Team's headquarters. The books for this library were identified by Harrow's library services and the YOT to help the young people in their charge (referred to them by magistrates at Harrow Youth Court).

The primary objective of these books are to give access to the written word to those teenagers who have difficulty reading and often have "reading ages" much younger than their actual age. So subjects of interest to teenagers with "reading ages" of perhaps seven to nine years.

The YOT brought in volunteers to read with these young people and they have had some success in encouraging them to read and have helped some to improve their reading skills.

In 2010 the Rotary Club of Pinner made a further contribution to the Harrow YOT library and made a similar donation to Hillingdon YOT for similar books.

How Frustrated Communication has helped:

In 2008, as a result of this contact with Harrow YOT we made contact with the manager of their Youth Inclusion Support Panel. Following discussions as to how we might help the young people they help who have communication difficulties we provided funds to purchase a number of games. These include anger management games - for example "Anger Bingo" and games to help raise their self esteem - such as the "I am Proud Ball".

In 2010 we provided funds to the Hillingdon Targeted Youth Support team to buy similar games to help their young people communicate more effectively and with less frustration.

Feedback on the resources provided by Frustrated Communication

Lin Fuge, Harrow YISP Manager
Commented at the end of 2009:

"The games purchased have proved invaluable. The anger bingo game has been used on many sessions with the young people we support.

"One young boy aged around 13 has fed back to us that he has used the strategies recommended in the game and is now able to communicate with his teachers in a more positive way.

"His teachers have noticed a marked improvement in his behaviour. He also uses the strategies at home and his relationship with his patents is much healthier.

"We also purchased an "I am proud ball" which has questions about feelings printed on it. YISP is supporting a child of 7 at the moment who has low self esteem and is reluctant to talk about feelings."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anne-Marie McCarthy, Hillingdon Targeted Youth Support Manager
Provided some very useful and detailed feedback at the beginning of 2011 including the following comments:

"Family Living Game - was a very useful tool to engage families with especially where communication is an issue. A fun way for families to interact together.

"Lets Talk: Social Skills - great to develop social skills in young people - a good way to practice verbal and non verbal questions in a creative way.

"I have used Lets Talk and the Nurturing Game within a family context and it was with an extremely volatile family. The parents commented just the few hours a week of the children being engaged and getting on with each other was a huge achievement.

"Responsibility game - Very good. This has been a creative tool for probing young people with healthy discussion to raise their awareness and understanding to take ownership and responsibility for their actions. Young people have appeared to enjoy this and have fun whilst playing also.

"Lets Talk: Assertiveness - An excellent tool to breakdown various different styles of communication. This has helped young people to identify with their own behaviour and increase their understanding to help them to develop effective communication skills. I have had feedback from a family member that they have seen positive growth in the young person who is now asking questions instead of demanding things which has been partly due to playing this game."