The Children’s Society East
Newsletter ~ Autumn 2015
Welcome to the 2nd edition of our
newsletter where you can meet
Amanda Maker our new Family
Intervention Team worker for West
Essex; and two of our Mid Essex
workers,
Gillian
Hurford
Community and Mentoring CoOrdinator and Ben Bessant Dare to
Care worker.
where the child may have a learning
disability).
Parenting Support offered by
new Family Intervention Team.
To
make
a
referral
http://bit.ly/1KBhhDD
My name is Amanda Maker, (pictured
below), and I have recently joined The
Family Intervention Team in West Essex
(Uttlesford, Harlow and Epping).
I have two grown up
children and have lived
the majority of my life in
Cornwall, moving to
Essex some ten years
ago. I have worked
within
schools
&
voluntary
sector
organisations for over
fifteen years; ten of those have been
working with vulnerable young people,
young carers and their families.
The service is commissioned to provide
early intervention to support parents with
children of minus nine months up to the age
of eighteen (up to the age of twenty five
childrenssociety.org.uk
Charity Reg: 221124
Requests for support can be made for risky,
aggressive or challenging behaviour, conflict
within a family, relationship breakdowns,
emotional distress and social isolation. By
providing a whole Family assessment and
key worker support with a solution focused
approach, the primary aim of our service is
to improve family stability and parenting
capacity.
please
visit
FREE
twilight
event
to
introduce Family Innovation
Funded work
Want to know more about the Family
Intervention and Safe in Essex teams?
Practitioners working in Mid and West
Essex are invited to attend an informative
event on Thursday 8th October 2015 from
4-6pm at KidsInspire HQ, Fox Crescent,
Chelmsford, CM1 2BL.




Learn about the new early intervention
services for children, young people
and families.
Meet the providers.
Find out how to refer.
Understand the services available in
Mid and West Essex.
No need to book, just turn up on the day.
25 09 2015
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Safe in Essex – Risky Behaviours
The Children’s Society East are delivering
early interventions to children and young
people between the ages of 10 and 18 who
are identified as engaging in risky
behaviours. Target groups are those using
drugs and alcohol, being involved in gangs
and trafficking, domestic abuse, E-safety,
those at risk of sexual exploitation, engaging
in risky sexual behaviour or anti-social
behaviour and crime. This is an early
intervention service and therefore young
people cannot already be involved with
statutory services. We will provide early
interventions to reduce the risk of these
behaviours escalating. Interventions can
take place at home, educational settings or
anywhere the child or young person feels
comfortable. To make a referral please visit
http://bit.ly/1KBhhDD
UPDATE: ‘Dare to Care’ now up
and running
The Dare to Care team is now up and
running in Mid Essex. Working with young
carers, aged 8-19 years old (25 if there are
SEN), we will help them develop greater
confidence
and
selfesteem. We will support
them in becoming resilient
and able to manage tough
situations. The Dare to
Care team are enthusiastic
about supporting young
carers in reaching their
“I’m excited and passionate about being given the
opportunity, and huge responsibility, to empower
young carers” Ben Bessant, Dare to Care worker
(pictured above)
goals and ensuring their voices are heard.
Led by newly recruited Community
Mentoring Co-Ordinator, Gillian Hurford
(pictured above right), our new Volunteer
childrenssociety.org.uk
Charity Reg: 221124
Mentoring Programme will take volunteer
work to a new level. Volunteer
mentors will receive in-house
training to enhance and
procure skills, preparing them
to support young people in
reaching their goals. We aim to
continue developing the work
of our volunteers to a larger scale; adding
much needed capacity to the teams.
Case study – ‘legal’ highs
‘N’ was 15 when she first tried Mephedrone. At
the time it was legal but it has since become a
controlled substance. One of her friend’s older
boyfriends introduced ‘N’ and her friends to
Mephedrone; at first letting them try it for free,
but then charging them for it as they used it
more regularly. When ‘N’ was upset about
family matters she used the drug to try and
cope, but the drug had serious negative
impacts on her. ‘N’ began to lose a lot of weight
but there weren’t just physical effects. As ‘N’
said “it blocks out emotions, it makes you
behave like a zombie. People think you don’t
care about anything.” ‘N’ was beaten up by the
friend of a dealer who she was in debt to and
she says that using the drug made her very
vulnerable. The Children’s Society began to
support ‘N’ giving her someone to talk to,
providing her with information and explaining
the risks and harms. With the help of supportive
foster parents and her Children’s Society
worker
‘N’ managed to stop taking
Mephedrone, and eventually moved on to semiindependent living before going on to
University.
If you are working with any child or young
person who needs support around their drug or
alcohol use please contact us.
Contact Us
The Children’s Society East
114 Springfield Road
Chelmsford
Essex
CM2 6LF
t: 01245 493 311
e: eypdas@childrenssociety.org.uk
25 09 2015
w: www.eypdas.org.uk
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