Our innovative PROJECT Y programme is aimed at children and young people aged 8-25.

FUTURE PROOF  

Future Proof is a targeted programme of support for children and young people aged 8-25.  It works with young people who are displaying perpetrator behaviours. This can be run to individuals or in a group setting. The group has been run at schools and at our Threshold offices. The programme is a 13-week programme that looks at every aspect of a young person’s ideas around their behaviours. The programme gives young people the opportunity to evaluate their negative behaviours and choose ways they would like to change them. We have found that group work can encourage children to collectively change their ideas around what is acceptable behaviour.

This program teaches children:

– Better communication skills

– Consequential thinking

– Respect

– Understanding other points of view

– How to manage anger

– How to achieve goals

From this programme, we also offer additional help where needed. Our future proof program also offers support around harmful sexual behaviour. This teaches young people about unhealthy sexual behaviours, and consent and can also be client-led depending on what their issue is. We have recently tailored this package for a group of young girls who needed support around their ideas of sexual activities with older males.

The Sparrow Programme

The Healthy Relationships Coaches deliver the Sparrow programme, working with children and young people to raise awareness about the importance of healthy relationships. Our programmes are held in schools, youth clubs, colleges and third party sector organisations that support children and young people.

Topics that are covered include social media, sexting, safe use of the internet, sexual health, understanding sexual orientation, bullying, peer pressure, drug and alcohol abuse, self-harming and suicide intervention, mental health and healthy eating. Alongside the group work, one to one support and drop-in services are also offered. The aim of this programme is to provide young people with the tools to address issues in their lives and understand their changing social world, in the hopes of breaking the cycle of domestic abuse and sexual violence.

Purple Heart

The Healthy Relationships Coaches also work as Healthy Relationships Facilitators, delivering the Purple Heart and Making Waves Programmes. The facilitators provide a specialist service, focused on early intervention and prevention practices with young people who are showing signs that may indicate a potential future as a domestic abuse offender. Purple Heart addresses teenage use of violence in close relationships,

Making Waves

Making Waves focuses on the child to parent abuse. The aim is to help change young people’s behaviours and attitudes, enabling them to make informed, conscious choices in their relationships and deal with conflicts more effectively.

Our child to parent violence sessions offers support to parents who are experiencing abuse from their children. Family members are offered their own support workers who work with them individually. When we have worked through individual sessions, we then offer family sessions where they can discuss how they feel in a safe space. We know that the success of this intervention heavily relies on the awareness of the child, this means that it is crucial that we acknowledge what the child thinks and feels about their behaviour. Our assessment of the child/young person is carried out in a non-judgmental and sensitive way so that the child can explain their behaviour honestly. We are aware that it is difficult for young people to break their patterns of behaviour, especially when this pattern becomes an expectancy from their parents. Our program offers a holistic intervention to encourage change so that both young people and their parents can embrace new ways of communicating. Our program works through set sessions; however, each client can bring their own scenarios, thoughts and feelings which means that the program is client-led.

WHAT DO OUR SESSIONS COVER

– What a healthy/unhealthy house looks like

– Communication (styles of communication that they each have and how that might look to the other)

– Different ways of reacting and acting and potential outcomes

– Looking at parenting styles. (Young people discuss what style their parents have and what kind of parent they would themselves like to be?) Parents complete work on their own parenting style in terms of whether that is authoritarian, authoritative, permissive, or uninvolved. (How they show love, discipline, and praise to their child- how this may impact their child)

– Discussions and tasks on their thoughts, feelings, intentions, and consequences of incidents that happen at home.

– Goal setting and developing a family plan of how to move forward

HOW DOES IT WORK

– Client led program which means clients make changes where they want.

– Brings a higher sense of awareness to the child so that they can understand their feelings and their behaviours.

– Encourages healthier ways to manage emotions

– Strengthens the bond between a parent and their child. Domestic abuse at home can mean that this relationship has become strained.

– Encourages children to look at their needs and understand how they can be met in a healthy way.

– Provides children and parents with the skills they need to communicate their feelings in a better way.

– Helps to build confidence and self-esteem.

– Gives a holistic approach to change which makes it a full family task rather than singling out one person.

Open 4 All

( Mediation service) 

The Young Person’s Mediator delivers the Open 4 All mediation programme, which works with the whole family to improve communication and find solutions to conflicts. The programme assists in addressing the issues behind conflicts, re-establishing or strengthening relationships, building trust and helping reach a mutually acceptable settlement. Where this is not possible, relationships are disentangled and ended while minimising emotional and psychological trauma. By allowing all parties to hear and be heard, coping methods and communication skills are developed to allow future issues to be resolved more easily.

Training and Skills Co-Ordinator

The Training and Skills Co-ordinator delivers to Health and Legal Professionals Training Programme, providing training for all health care professionals, judges, magistrates and legal professionals. The programme aims to develop skills and a greater understanding of domestic abuse and its effects on children and young people, so that individuals working within the NHS, Legal professionals and other statutory services are more easily able to identify abuse and refer to the most appropriate service.

To make a referral or ask for more information you can contact the service at:

Threshold- Das Limited

12-14 John Street

Llanelli

SA15 1UH

enquiries@threshold-das.org.uk

TEL: 01554 752422