Annual Report

 

  TWO - ‘e’ ANNUAL REPORT  APRIL 2004 – MARCH 2005

 

Two-e Mission Statement

Two-e  seeks to provide an accessible, responsive and confidential service for young people which will empower them to take greater control of their lives.  

 

The Aims of the service

AIM 1.

To offer a free, confidential and comprehensive advice and information service  to young people aged 13 – 21 who live, work or study in the London Borough of Enfield.

AIM 2.

To ensure that those young people who use the service do not suffer through ignorance of their rights and responsibilities or through an inability to express their needs effectively.

AIM 3.

In line with the Enfield Youth Service curriculum, to encourage young people :-

 

The aims of the service are carried out within the framework of the Enfield Youth Service whose Statement of Purpose is :-  

 

The purpose of Youth Work in Enfield is to ensure the educational attainment, health and well being of young people.

 

and whose Curriculum Statement is guided by the following principles :-  

 

TWO-E SERVICES

Two-e services are free.  Confidentiality is maintained except when abuse is suspected or disclosed. In such cases local authority guidelines regarding Child Protection will be followed.

 

ADVICE

Two-e offers advice about any issue that is relevant to the young person e.g. relationships, claiming benefits, debt, managing money, safe sex, personal safety, drugs, housing, bullying, alcohol exclusion, college courses, training schemes, finding work.

 

 

 

INFORMATION

Two-e provides leaflets, handouts and other information on issues that are important to young people. If the information is not available when young person requests it, Two-e will advise where to get it, post it to the young person at a later date or young people can access the information on the internet at Two-e. Two-e also provides an e-mail advice service via their website i.e. www.two-e .org.uk

 

SUPPORT

Two-e staff support young people by listening and being non-judgmental, offering options and enabling decisions to be made, finding services and making appropriate referrals, advocating when appropriate, helping fill out forms and telephoning young people to find out if they are OK. Weekly support is offered and provided as long as it is needed.

 

OTHER SERVICES

 

STAFF TEAM

 

The staff team comprises of 2 full time and 2 part time youth workers and 1 part time administrator. The team is complimented by a full time Connexions Personal Adviser based at the project.

 

OPENING HOURS

The centre is open :-

Mon 1pm - 5pm

Tuesday 1pm - 5pm

Wed 3pm - 7pm (free legal advice during this session)

Thurs 1pm - 5pm

Fri - Closed  

 

REVIEW OF THE YEAR  

CENTRE BASED WORK

Two-e works with individual young people who self refer or who are referred by friends, relatives or organisations who work with young people. All young people come voluntarily and there is no restriction on how many times they attend. They are allocated a youth worker and are seen by the same person each time they come. Case notes are kept for each contact and progress is charted. Their case is closed once their issue is resolved or they decide they no longer wish or need to come. The youth worker works in collaboration with the young person round the issues they bring. Together they explore options open to the young person and encourage the young person to make informed choices for future actions. The youth worker will advocate on behalf of the young person when appropriate, broker services for the young person and refer to specialist organisations when necessary. Here are some statistics regarding the young people we worked with on an individual basis :-

 

 

333 individual young people were worked with on an individual basis at the centre.

The 333 young people between them contacted the project 1621 times

 

 This table shows the age and gender of the 333 young people  

   

 

The following table shows a breakdown of ethnicities of the young people

 

 

The following table shows where the young people came from and whether they were in education, work or training :-

 

 

The following table shows who referred young people to us.  

 

   

333 young people between them contacted the project 1621 times which is an average of 5 contacts per person. The monthly contact statistics are shown in the next table.  

 

 

The above table shows the numbers of contacts with individuals whom we had significant contact with at the centre. The following table shows the total number of contacts with young people and a breakdown of those figures.

 

 

OUTCOMES

 

The following is a list of the soft outcomes achieved with each individual y.p. worked with at the centre :-

 

The following soft outcomes would have been achieved with some but not all of the individuals -

 

 

 

Hard outcomes are more tangible and easier to identify. They are :-

 

The following is a list of the hard outcomes were achieved with the 333 individuals worked with at the centre in the past year.  

 

Housing Referrals  

 

Education / Employment / Training  

 

Benefits  

 

Specialist legal advice

 

Charities

 

     

Successful negotiations have taken place with the following  

 

Young people have been helped to 

 

 

Schools / Colleges / Youth Centres

 

This year sessions in schools / colleges included :-

 

The learning outcomes for his group were :-

 

Information Events  

 

   

Outreach  

 

  

STUDENTS

For the third year running we have had a student on placement from Enfield College. She was studying  NVQ Administration - Level 2 and spent 1 day a week with us from October 04 – May 05. She was successful in passing her course and is now in full time employment

 

YAVE VOLUNTEERS

YAVE, which is another Youth Service project, stands for Youth Action Volunteering Enfield.  YAVE vols are recruited through local secondary schools by the YAVE team and are usually students from year 12 who are interested in either working in an office environment or working in the field of advice / legal work.  8 YAVE volunteers were given the opportunity of working at Two-e during the year. Each volunteer gave 15 hours of their time and enjoyed a variety of tasks e.g. updating information, cataloguing material, redesigning leaflets, ordering leaflets by phone and internet, researching useful websites on the internet, photocopying etc.  

 

FILM PROJECT

In partnership with the Participation and Consultation worker for the Youth Service, Two-e has produced a film called Through Our Eyes. It was made with 4 young asylum seeking unaccompanied minors from Angola aged 17 and 18 and it is about their feelings and experiences of fleeing their native country and coming to live in Enfield. It is hoped that the film will break down some of the media myths regarding refugees and encourage understanding and respect for young asylum seeking children. It is hoped that the film will be distributed throughout the Youth Service and local schools and used as an effective tool for combating racism and discrimination.

 

 

 

 

None of the young men who took part in the film had any experience of film making previously and all of them have gained enormously in confidence and self esteem since taking part.  The film was supported with a grant of £1000 by the Enfield Film Fund who have since set up a free course in film making for young people as a direct result of the Through Our Eyes experience. One of the young film makers completed the EFF course and has since gone on to make 3 more short films, He has decided that he would like  a career in the film industry and intends studying this further at University.

 

CONDOM DISTRIBUTION

 

The Youth Service is part of the Teenage Pregnancy Partnership Board and the Teenage Parents sub-group. As part of the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy, the Health Service has stated that all agencies engaged in face-to-face work with young people should be supported in the provision of sexual health and contraceptive information and advice and where appropriate, agencies are provided with contraceptives in accordance with the relevant guidelines. Under the terms of this agreement Two-e distributes condoms on behalf of 4YP. When young people request condoms they are asked for their age, gender, ethnicity and postcode. The following stats show the extent of the take up of free condoms at Two-e. These stats may include repeats i.e. same young person coming back more than once.

Age and gender :-                                                                                     

 

 

 

Ethnicity :-            

 

 

 Postcode :-  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HOMELESSNESS

 

Homelessness continues to be the major issue that young people come to Two-e about. Out of the 333 young people we worked with on an individual basis at the centre, 210 were homeless or had housing related issues.                           

                          

It is extremely difficult to help young homeless people under the age of 25 due to the lack of affordable accomodation. Many young homeless people spend weeks, months and even years moving from one friend or relative to the next until all options are exhausted. Many young people have to sleep rough because direct access hostels in central London won’t take them unless they are in receipt of a benefit and can produce I.D.  Many young people have been thrown out by parents and are not allowed back into the house to retrieve the necessary I.D. which enables them to access benefits and hostel places. The housing crisis in London has meant that all hostels and housing projects are silted up and young people lucky enough to get on a housing project waiting list face a wait of between 6 months and 1 year to be housed.

Two-e supports young people through this stressful period in their lives by :-

Referrals to Housing Associations  

 

1. Christian Action H.A. – supported housing

 Out of 23 young people referred 5 were housed by CAHA

 

2. Patchwork – supported housing

Out of 30 young people referred 5  were housed by Patchwork

 

3. Beck House  – supported housing     

Out of 7 young people referred 2  were housed by Beck House

 

4. The Enfield Foyer – supported housing

Out of 24 young people referred  10  were housed by The Foyer

 

5. Lee Housing – non supported housing / general needs

Out of 41 young people referred 16 were housed by Lee Housing Assoc.

 

 

Preventative Work  

 

As part of our ongoing commitment to the Enfield Single Homeless Strategy, Two-e undertakes preventative work round the issue of homelessness by visiting youth centres, schools and colleges and talking to teenagers about leaving home, housing options, the difficulties in finding suitable accomodation and the advantages of remaining at home. These workshops also entail information and advice re. benefit entitlement and how to claim and about what help is available at Two-e.

 

 

Two-e has also produced their own housing information sheets which has been written by staff in a user friendly manner and which is available for young people to pick up at the centre.  

 

DEVELOPMENT PLANS FOR 05 – 06