Break - Stepping up for young People

Break supports our young people in fulfilling their potential by nurturing their emotional and mental development so they can be successful in education and employment. They can also access opportunities to acquire the skills and training they need to attain career and life goals.

We continue to support our young people once they leave care at 18 so that they can stay on a positive pathway and succeed in life. Break’s approach is working - young people supported by Break have significantly better life outcomes than the national average.  We achieve this impact because in addition to the standard, statutorily funded care, Break offers added value support, such as Mentoring, which are charitably funded.

Impact

Mentoring is offered to young people in Norfolk who are in care, on the edge of care or leaving care including:

·      Children and teenagers aged 11- 18 years old living care in a Break home or with Break supported foster families.

·      Young people who have left care at 18 and are entering adulthood.

·      Young parents who have lived in care and may struggle with the responsibilities of family life. Once they leave care at 18 so that they can stay on a positive pathway and succeed in

·      Care experienced young people contend with multiple invisible barriers and the impact of traumatic early experiences can cascade into increasing disadvantage. They struggle to manage emotions, form relationships and trust others.  Low self- esteem affects social engagement and hinders them from accessing education and employment.

These young people often don’t have the benefit of supportive parents and family to help them face these difficult life challenges.  At Break, we believe that they deserve support from a caring adult who can be a stable presence in their lives.  Our Mentoring service offers an adult who can reach out to isolated young people, helping them to connect with their communities and progress in life. Mentors give encouragement and guidance on education and employment as well as using their own life experience to provide practical advice in areas such as budgeting, healthy eating, being a responsible tenant, and relationships.

Why are we crowdfunding?

Although Break receives statutory funding to run our children’s homes, all of Break’s added value services are charitably funded and we work very hard to source the funding necessary to continue their delivery. The generous support from the public and the business community has been vital in changing the lives of so many of our young people and we hope that you will continue to do so.

How we’ll spend the money raised

Break is successfully expanding our Mentoring service so it can be available to every one of our young people.  We have a waiting list of young people who are keen to be matched with a mentor.  Break's Mentoring service costs a total of £67882 to deliver across East Anglia. We are Crowdfunding for part of this, we want to deliver 4 quarterly events over a 12 month period to informally introduce prospective mentors to our young people and hopefully successfully match them into mentoring pairs.  

Money raised would be spent on training,  supervision and evaluation of mentors; staff training, including trauma informed practice and safeguarding; monthly activities for mentoring pairs; food and travel to events for our young people who are often struggling to make ends meet.

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