CHANGING REAL LIVES FOR THE BETTER

Every day at BYHP we strive to improve people’s lives through the various services we provide, whether it is Family Mediation, Counselling, Employability, Housing Advice or CAMHS Project, the various interventions our experienced team can make, literally do turn people’s lives around.
Whatever the problem, we can offer advice and guidance and a route to achieving a successful outcome. We are a Charity supporting all young people aged 13 to 25 (and often their families) in Banbury and the North Oxfordshire region.
Here are some examples of our work and results:

HOW THE ARTS SAVED A TROUBLED TEENAGER

BUILDING SHIRLEY’S CONFIDENCE AND SELF -ESTEEM THROUGH CAMHS SESSIONS

Client Sasha (not her real name) was referred to BYHP when she was not involved in any education, training or employment and had not been in employment for over six months. Sasha had tried a range of jobs within the local area but they had lasted just a few weeks.
Our philosophy of working with Sasha was to understand why she was not able to hold down a job, what her current interests and goals were. We quickly established that Sasha had not felt comfortable in previous jobs, due to personal and social reasons, but was motivated by the creative arts particularly the theatre
 We then organised some creative workshops so Sasha could gain invaluable work experience in this environment. After contacting the local theatre Sasha has also taken part in several work experience days with more to follow.  The range of skills she has covered on her work experience days, include ushering, technical support, promotions and marketing.
In addition BYHP has organised several creative workshops for Sasha to participate, including a digital music workshop, where she has produced four pieces of personal music.
Another initiative is the drama workshop where Sasha has worked one to one with an experienced actress, which are designed to develop her drama skills.
Sasha also regularly attends BYHP’s AQA Unit Award Scheme courses which are run through the Unlocking Potential for Oxfordshire project. These courses are run for three days, once a month, and each module is focused on Employment, covering topics such as personal development, business and enterprise and finance and budgeting.
 
Sasha has now received a number of Unit Award Scheme certificates in order to boost her employability skills and qualifications. In addition she regularly attends BYHP’s peer support group on Wednesday evenings where various activities are planned and a hot meal is also provided. This has allowed Sasha to improve her confidence when meeting people in groups as well as building new friendships.
We have also helped Sasha create a new CV, find and apply for jobs as well as practicing and developing her interview skills. She is waiting to hear whether she has been successful in applying for some part-time jobs, whilst she continues to work with BYHP to achieve her long term goal of finding a job in the theatre.

“After the sessions I feel so much more positive and able to cope with stress”, was Shirley’s (not her real name) conclusion after taking part in the CAMHS In-Reach role at BYHP. Shirley had originally been referred to BYHP by her school requesting Mental Health support.
Her family were already accessing BYHP services for Family Mediation and this was complimented by eight CAMHS In-Reach sessions all held at her school.
Following an assessment Shirley’s range of issues featured Anxiety, Anger issues and Relationship issues within the family as well as her friendship group and being ‘overwhelmed’ with everything.
BYHP’s Project Worker soon identified the core problems Shirley was experiencing, low sense of worth, self-esteem, confidence and self-compassion. She was also struggling with feelings of having to be responsible for others, especially her parents, which in turn created feelings of anger, resentment and being out of control.
The BYHP plan was to build a sense of “who she is” and “who she wants to be”, by discussing her upbringing and life experiences, whilst investigating her feelings about herself and others and where her feelings of responsibility originated from. An important cog to the overall process was the opportunity to build her self-esteem and self-compassion, highlighting the importance of meeting one’s own needs. In tandem with this approach our Project Worker carried out a range of exercises to help her feel more grounded and focused through Breathing, Body Scanning, and Mindfulness designed to enable her to listen to get ‘gut’ reactions.
Other interventions featured written/art exercises to improve he emotional literacy and self-esteem; Anchors (things that make you feel Happy and Safe); the Gingerbread man (Identifying Somatic feelings), Distress Tolerance exercises, exploring the ‘Circle of Control’ and problem-solving exercises, thus allowing her to respond rather than react. Other techniques featured Mindfulness; Breathing; Compassionate Meditations and/or Visualisation exercises.
Over the eight separate sessions Shirley became increasingly able to recognise her own emotions and needs. She also began to understand the roles she would fall into and how these were detrimental to her own wellbeing, instead of being able to allow creating time and space for herself, whilst acknowledging the importance of self-compassion. As a result, her self-esteem grew, and she is able to make decisions about her role within the family and her friendship group which has improved her confidence overall.
At the final individual session Shirley was looking positively towards the future with a good set of coping strategies in place to support her.

JORDAN SAWING HIS WAY TO RECOVERY

Jordan’s first contact with BYHP materialised when he was referred to our Back on Track employability programme after taking Elective Home Education as an alternative to having a permanent exclusion from school on his record. Having been removed from school Jordan (not his real name) was not engaged in any form of education, employment or training at the time he first came into contact with BYHP. He was identified to us by the school that he had previously been attending and had no destination planned.
When Jordan began to engage with BYHP we needed to understand what had caused the breakdown of his placement in school. He was very self-conscious and anxious with both teachers and other students. Jordan believed he had a target painted on his back due to the unruly behaviour of his siblings who attended the same school.
BYHP’s strategy of working with Jordan was to establish what his future goals are and how we can assist him in achieving them. Jordan excels in physical work, particularly carpentry in which he has a personal interest after completing several hobby projects at home. Because of this interest we have supported Jordan to apply to study carpentry at College, which will allow him to acquire the English and Maths qualifications Jordan missed out on at school, alongside the course content.
To help prepare Jordan for the College placement, and prevent the issues that caused his previous problems at school to break down from reoccurring, BYHP is supporting him in many ways. Jordan attends our Unit Award Scheme (UAS) programme which is a monthly three-day course that is re-introducing Jordan to studying within a group setting. In addition, the programme is designed to support life skills training including personal development, employability, personal finance and business for life. It has also expanded his social network making Jordan feel much happier and confident in himself.
Jordan’s improved confidence means he is now an active participant in group activities, he is producing amazing results in our Digital Music Project, he is an excellent contributor to the regular weekly evening peer support group and engages in activities run with our partners Mill Arts Centre or making garden furniture  with St. Mungo’s. In turn this has helped us develop a brilliant CV for Jordan.
Also, we are advising and supporting Jordan to improve his overall health and wellbeing, which has included substantially reducing his smoking and key diet changes.  Jordan is also striving to improve his fitness levels by attending a local gym. He has also been referred to BYHP counselling service to work on his anxiety and anger issues.
Jordan is on track to achieve successful outcomes by developing his skills, confidence and resilience to obtain the most out of his placement when he commences his carpentry course at college in September.