We were delighted to be awarded funding from the Young Start fund from the National Lottery at the end of last year.
Our Young Start project will work with young people (16-25 years old) with complexities/neurodiversity to provide a 1:1, bespoke pathway of support to employability by building and developing foundational skills.
The project will work with the young people to identify and build on their strengths and interests to enable them to engage with employability and training schemes and identify opportunities for purposeful activity.
Each young person will work with a named Support Broker from our network who will be their key contact throughout their journey. Together they will identify and design the elements of their pathway, this could include building self-confidence, sensory regulation, time management, travel training and money awareness. They will then look to find the support organisations that can help with progressing their pathway.
Young people have told us they find it hard to engage with services, can struggle to attend appointments and find meeting new people difficult. The 1:1 approach, through the Support Brokers, will facilitate the conditions that enable young people to say what they want to happen and what they will need in their 'steps to progress' towards well-being, community connection and opportunities.
In order to develop this pathway, our first stage will be gathering information from young people and their carers to understand more about the barriers and successes they have experienced in accessing purposeful activities or employment and volunteering. After this initial consultation phase, we will develop the support based around this feedback.
This project has funding for 3 years and we hope to work with 10-12 young people and their families each year.
If you are a young person who is interested in developing your foundational skills, or are a carer for a young person, and would be interested to be part of the project, please contact Lindsay Graham – lindsay@edg-sco.org.
댓글