2021-07-30-accounts

headroom YOUNG PEOPLE'S CHARITY Annual Report 20/21

Who we are

Headroom is a new independent Charity, founded in April 2020, formally registered on 20th August 2020 to provide therapeutic support to local young people 11- 25 yrs old and their parents and/or carers.

They are:

• Suffering poor mental health

• Victims of trauma and high number of Adverse Childhood Experiences

• Often neurodiverse with either diagnosis or traits of Autism, ADHD, ADD, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, high Anxiety

• Demonstrating dysfunctional, challenging and /or aggressive behaviours

• Experiencing difficulties with and rejection from family and mainstream schools

• Vulnerable to educational and social exclusion

• At high risk of exploitation and offending behaviour.

Our Support

Our support is based on a systemic approach and our team has a particular specialism in working with clients with issues listed above, often suffering from historic or current domestic abuse at risk of developing long term mental health issues.

The decision to respond to this need was informed by local services identifying increasing pressures on families linked to COVID 19 pandemic restrictions, and it’s ongoing aftermath. Including impact on young people’s mental health alongside recognition of the impact of the decline of local youth based services, in particular therapeutic services.

Our vision is to engage these hard to reach young people, build rapport through a range of styles including “walking and talking” using creative and sometimes non verbal approaches to invite meaningful and honest reflection and exploration of what needs to change and break dysfunctional cycles of behaviour. To restore stability and support emotional resilience enabling young people to thrive and achieve their full potential.

invite a meaningful and honest reflection and exploration of what needs to change and break dysfunctional cycles of behaviour

Our Objectives

To launch and establish Headroom Young People’s Charity as a provider of high quality therapeutic services for young people and their parents and carers

To target young people aged 11-25 and their parents who suffer from multiple and complex issues resulting in stuck situations and chaotic, dysfunctional home environments.

To work closely with referring local agencies inc. Children’s Services and schools to bring a therapeutically informed approach enabling the Team around the family to better understand how best to support and meet the needs of the family and together achieve breakthrough progress where previously interventions had failed.

To use our 18 years of expertise delivering anger management counselling to educate young people and parents alike how to improve their emotional intelligence, resilience and management in the home and beyond, hence reducing child to parent domestic abuse, anti social behaviour and address the isolation inherent in angry y/p.

We target families with children with behavioural management issues attempting to stay in education by working with school to assert realistic and achievable plans for each y/p to ensure they attend successfully and achieve.

We aim to arrest family breakdown bring stability and sense of safety inside the family home and in doing so address the vulnerability of children and y/p to the draw of local gang related activities and consequent offending behaviour.

We promote the importance of mental well being of parents and carers

To promote understanding of the impact of learning disabilities and support parents dealing with the impact of Autism and other forms of neurodiversity in growing adolescents.

Our Accomplishments

vs

Our objectives

Target vulnerable young people 1 & parents facing a range of disadvantages.

Our various referrers have understood well who our support is aimed at and we have been able to accept almost all 80 + referrals with the exception of 2 so far!

Impacting on stuck and or escalating 2 situations at home with regard to

dysfunctional and often violent behaviour between family members.

Out of the 24 families we have worked with, challenged by these issues, 21 have seen either a massive improvement or a halting altogether of aggressive behaviours and chaotic lifestyles. The remaining 3 we’re still working with.

Work closely with referring agencies 3 where we are part of a multi agency team around a young person and their family.

We enjoy positive working relationships with all local schools and organisations and believe our involvement with 11 local schools and colleges has informed more realistic, detailed and better supported plans to support families that need reliable and appropriate advocacy.

Our Results

Young people

Parents

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32 540 30 324
Young People Sessions delivered Parents Sessions delivered
Supported to young people Supported to parents / carers
Young person age breakdown: 19-25 yrs: 3 16-18 yrs: 15 14-15 yrs: 9 11-13 yrs: 5
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We’ve directly supported 32 young people, delivering 540 sessions as well as 30 Parents delivering 324 sessions during our first year, initially seen via video link or telephone, then, as lockdown eased we began face-to-face sessions again. We’re still offering all 3 types of counselling to ensure we remain as accessible as possible to both young people and parents alike.

Evidence of Success

We gather a wide range of data from those referred to us through our assessment process and ongoing regular evaluations with y/p of the support we provide.

The evidence below is from work delivered either directly to the y/p or through parenting support provided directly to those caring for adolescent children. We also provide simultaneous support to both adolescent and parents, maximising our input.

Child to parent domestic abuse

16 18 Families Families

Out of 18 families, 16 have seen significant reduction and for most, this has ceased altogether.

6 9 Those at risk of offending Young People Young People Out of 9 Young People, 6 are now significantly reduced risks, with 3 at a moderately reduced risk. 12 14 At risk of family breakdown Young People Families

Out of 14 families, 12 significantly reduced the risk and have stayed together, 2 remain at risk.

15 20 Suicidation and Self Harm Young People Young People Out of 20 Young People (YP), 15 are significantly more stable since our support began. 17 19 Anger Management Issues Young People Young People

Out of 19 Young People (YP) referred for support, 17 now demonstrate significantly improved self management, evidenced by an end to arguments or fights at home.

Deteriorating Mental Health

24 27 Young People Young People

Out of 27 Young People (YP), 24 have now stabilised, 20 have shown moderate to good improvement, managing their anxiety in more healthy and effective ways.

Promoting the need to protect parent’s mental health by offering not just parenting support but counselling support as well to support those challenged with their own issues that are

impacting on their ability to be the parents they want to be for their teenagers.

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W, 18 Years Old
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W was 18, he was Autistic and at college, he and his mum were getting into physical fights. We supported W by providing therapeutic mentoring by phone for 12 weeks and mum through weekly parenting support for 10 sessions. Mum learnt to understand W’s condition and radically changed how she spoke to and parented W, seeing her approach was highly triggering to W. By the end of W’s sessions he demonstrated how much he loved his mum and wanted to avoid escalations which were so distressing to both. He changed his mindset and could walk away from situations to self -calm, encouraged and facilitated by mum.

Just one of our case studies

Quotes from those we have supported this year

My OCD ruled my life. Now I know where and how it all started and what happened to me I’ve started to feel differently about stuff, things are definitely getting easier.

I think I get myself more now, I know what I need to do and I don’t have to fight everybody’s fights for them anymore, I just can’t be bothered.

V, 14 years old

K, 21 years old

I’m actually ok with being Autistic, I hated it when I first found out, and I think that was why I was so angry all the time. This(support) makes me think about myself differently and I’ve learnt I’ve just got to pace myself and not over do things.

I really liked talking to my counsellor and just feel better for getting stuff off my chest, now when I feel I need support I don’t panic, I just ask myself what would my counsellor say to do, and then I do it.

V, 14 years old

K, 21 years old

More Quotes from those we’ve supported

I think you’re the only one I’ve spoken to in years that really gets this, I can’t believe I didn’t realise what the issues were, but it explains so much. Your help has made a massive difference in the house, almost no meltdowns and I’ve learned to stop stressing about everything and making things worse for him.

Parent to Son (15 yrs) with traits of Autism & ADHD but no diagnosis

I’m so glad school gave us your details, I was really struggling to know what to do about this situation, I was exhausted and J refused to see anyone. We’ve lowered our expectations for the moment, stopped pushing her and are working more closely with school, and I feel they understand more now. We’ve come up with a more realistic routine and I feel more in control of our situation and how best to respond when things get tough.

Parent to Daughter (16 Yrs) with Serious Anxiety

I used to dream of escaping, I was so lost. I’ve learnt so much about my son’s needs, and had amazing support with the school too, I know they think I was just a troublesome parent. We’ve changed the way we do things a lot and I think everyone’s benefited from more structure and less chaos at home, I can’t thank you enough.

Parent to Child (12 yrs) with traits of Autism & ADHD

Goals for the next year

Increase Provision

How?

Reduce waiting time for most vulnerable individuals

How?

Through targeted fundraising to remunerate our therapists for more hours and attract more skilled therapists and mentors to meet the growing demand.

We must prioritise increasing the fantastic Headroom team so we can offer more support, faster, to those who need it most.

Impact & Value

Greatest impact of our work this year has been working with families and young people with various forms of neurodiversity, this can include conditions such as severe anxiety, Autism, ADHD, ADD, ODD, Dyslexia and Dyspraxia. Of the 60 families referred to us 24 had some form of these conditions in the adolescents in the family and sometimes their parents too. These conditions can often be missed or not emerge until adolescence, and can be much misunderstood, and so those caring in caring roles are often challenged to know how best to support this vulnerable group

As a charity Headroom specialises in both understanding and supporting those who are struggling with these issues and have demonstrated we really get it when it comes to improving y/p’s self -awareness, self -determination and self-advocacy.

24 young people either directly or through working with their parents have benefited from our specialist support. This means Young People are able to understand themselves and their specific needs, their capacity, make some key changes to their lifestyle, learn to function at a pace that’s sustainable, feel safe and perform in school, college or at work. They also start to understand when they need to step away from activity that drains them.

Key Takeaways

• A proven track record of quality theraputic services for young people with invaluable support for their parents

• Highly experienced team all of whom have been working therapeutically with these client groups for over 10 years.

• Committed to a multi agency approach to therapeutically inform processes around families with complex needs.

Financial Breakdown

Total Income: £19,125

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15%
Donations
61% 22%
Grants & Bids Chargeable
from Funding Work
Applications
2%
Gift Aid
Amazon Smile
Total Expenses: £13,734
2%
Website, I.T
4%
Petrol, Utilities, 90%
Mobile Phone,
Stationary Salaries
4%
Insurance,
Professional
Membership,
Supervision, DBS
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Teams

The Headroom Team

Petronella Antemis

Qualified Children’s & Adolescent’s Counsellor

Sue Evans

Operations Director, Specialist Anger Management & Parenting Support

Steve Glaister

Qualified Counsellor & Therapeutic Mentor

Emma Henry

Young People’s Counsellor & Anger Management Specialist

Ruth Harrison

Placement Parents Counsellor

Gemma Ward

Placement Young People’s Counsellor

Nicole Asghar

Placement Young People’s Counsellor Specialising in Neurodiversity

Trustees

Ivan Whitmee

HR, Policies & Procedures

Rebecca Williams

Marketing, Systems, Website, Social Media

Simon Mahony

Therapeutic oversight, Safeguarding

Sue Hickey

Finance & Accounts

Brian Hickey

Data Support

Support

Volunteer Support

Youth Volunteer

Olivia Critchley

As part of her Duke of Edinburgh Award

Voluntary Web Design & Development Oli Evans & Curtis Williams

Agitate Digital Ltd

Accounting Support

Saraya Taylor

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