Positive Destinations
Positive Destinations - new approaches to achieving Positive Destinations for young people.
If you are looking for BBC Children in Need's general grants programme please click here
Positive Destinations is a £2 million grant programme, additional to BBC Children in Need's general grants programme, which we have undertaken in partnership with The Hunter Foundation. The programme was launched in early 2008 and aimed at the most vulnerable children and young people. It takes place over three years and has drawn a very positive response from a wide range of organisations across the UK.
Positive Destinations has now made three large and two smaller grants to ensure that children and young people achieve a positive and sustained future in terms of education, employment or training. As an integral part of this programme projects will be expected to generate learning and ensure sustainability of their work beyond the life of the programme. The learning from the programme will be disseminated on a continuing basis to help inform practice and policy in this field.
We are now closed for applications. We do not anticipate any further funding at this time.
Please see below for details on those projects currently being funded under the Positive Destinations programme:
Large Grants
School-Home-Support - Transforming Young Lives in the East Midlands
School-Home Support (SHS) work with disadvantaged, vulnerable and disaffected children - helping them overcome the barriers that get in the way of their learning. They do this through direct services - placing independent, highly trained practitioners in schools where they deliver the emotional and practical support that helps children make the most of their education and by offering professional training, consultancy, and resources. Their work addresses the many difficult and sensitive issues commonplace in the disadvantaged communities in which they work and their support is tailored to meet the unique needs of each school community.
On a strategic level, to ensure a smooth and supported transition from one school stage to the next, they place practitioners across all school levels, i.e. nursery, primary, and secondary. Where possible, and in the case of this project, they employ a cluster model whereby they introduce support into secondary schools and their feeder primary schools. By encouraging and facilitating communication across these cluster schools, where often one practitioner works across several schools, they ensure that vulnerable pupils do not fall through the gap once they reach their new school, but continue to receive the support they need for as long as is needed. For those moving from secondary to further education or employment, a key aspect of their work is the ability of their practitioners to provide brokerage and advocacy between these young people and external agencies.
This new project will see the SHS model rolled out into schools across Nottingham, Derby and Leicester. Eleven practitioners will be recruited to deliver support to 6,500 five to 17 year olds who are struggling with their education and their school experience and who are at risk of becoming NEET. These young people will be supported in their home and school life to reach their full potential. The project will also coordinate support from other agencies that may be required to intervene in the lives of the children and young people in order to provide holistic support.
Grant of £483,904 over three years
Shelter - Knowsley Child Support Service
Shelter believes everyone should have a home and it helps more than 170,000 people a year fight for their rights, get back on their feet, and find and keep a home. It also tackles the root causes of bad housing by campaigning for new laws, policies, and solutions. Shelter's experience and the feedback from children and young people recently led to the development of new projects tailored to support children and act as a blueprint to end child homelessness. Each project tackles a different aspect of childhood homelessness, showcasing new ways of working with homeless children.
Shelter's Knowsley Child Support Service will support a total of 600 homeless children through this three-year project. They will support children in families who have been found intentionally homeless (for example, through rent arrears or anti social behaviour) by the Local Authority, or who are at risk of eviction. Families will be referred through a range of agencies including the Homeless Persons Unit, teachers or Education Officers. Those at risk of eviction will be referred by the Housing Association Tenancy and Enforcement units, or by the Council's Anti-Social Behaviour Unit. Shelter will provide three tiers of support providing the most intensive support for 120 children with the most complex needs, a medium level of support for 360 children and finally a more basic level of support for 120 children with less complex needs many of whom are expected to be assessed and may then referred to other agencies. All children will have a Housing Needs Assessment and the majority will also have an assessment in line with the Common Assessment Framework.
All 600 children referred to the project will be assessed by the Assessment and Co-ordination Worker, and a Housing Needs Assessment completed to determine the intensity of support required. Those children with less complex needs - around 120 - will be referred to other appropriate agencies. For the 480 children with more complex needs, a Common Assessment Framework will be completed in accordance with the Every Child Matters agenda. The Assessment and Co-ordination Worker will liaise with a Lead Professional if one has been appointed for the child, and if not a member of the Shelter team will assume this role. As many agencies as are needed to facilitate a client action plan will be engaged from the outset. Where appropriate they will work with the parents or guardians, referring them to agencies that will help maintain a stable environment for their children. 120 children with the most complex needs will receive intensive and tailored support from the project's Child Support Workers. The Workers will deliver most of the practical support at this intensive level, such as: group activities to build confidence and manage relationships and emotions; homework clubs; and fun activities to encourage learning outside school and to maximise the opportunities that school gives.
The work will seek to provide stability for the children in what will be traumatic and highly chaotic periods in their families' lives and to embed best practice within statutory and other voluntary agencies, striving for a genuine transformation in policy and practice for homeless children.
Grant of £499,867 over three years
Young Enterprise Scotland- MAXIMISE - ensuring Young People Reach their Full Potential
Young Enterprise Scotland (YES) works in Primary through Secondary and Further Education settings within and outside the school environment. Work is specifically targeted at the delivery of enterprise learning for children and young people and is provided by a team of trained and skilled part time trainers. Their vision is to enable all young people in Scotland access to this valuable learning experience preparing them for their future participation in the labour market and as inclusive citizens.
The project will provide business enterprise training to 900 young people in Central Scotland, mainly those who are looked after or accommodated by statutory authorities or voluntary sector service providers. They have poor educational attainment, low self-confidence and limited aspirations and fall into the category of young people prioritised by Scottish Government NEET strategy - More Choices, More Chances. An estimated 720 participating young people will attain their own positive destination of employment or further training/education.
Through providing relevant and practical training they want to re-engage the young people and enable them to develop employability skills, to understand about employment and vocational opportunities, whilst understanding the principles of operating a business. By assisting young people to establish a business they will develop a wide range of soft skills in addition to business skills. They take them from a standing start and get them to a point where they are capable of pitching their business plan (a bit like Dragon's Den). This increases their confidence, communication, numeracy, decision making and team work skills.
This is a variation of the 'Mean Business' Programme developed from work YES has delivered with Young Offenders and young people in Secure and Residential Units. The programme is customised to fit the participant's individual needs and recognises that numeracy and literacy levels may be poor. The final phase of the MAXIMISE programme identifies what additional support or skills development the young people need to ensure successful transition into work or further training, prior to engaging with Careers Scotland for careers guidance or Prince's Scottish Youth Business Trust if the young people wish to set up their own business. An Action Plan will be developed during this final phase to support the participants' onward journey. YES also have a network of businesses that they would use to support any employment opportunities.
Grant of £429,261 over three years
Small Grants
Bryson Charitable Group, Belfast - Young Person's Personal Aspiration Planning Project
Bryson Charitable Group's Social Care activities can be divided into three distinct areas: Care Services for vulnerable adults; Advocacy Services for adults with learning disabilities; and' Family Services for disadvantaged families. Bryson Family Services provide three Family Support models: generic family supports for children which provides practical and emotional support to families who are experiencing severe stress and crisis; an Intensive Family Support Service for families who require a more intense service as there is a greater risk of children being placed into care; and the Early Years Family Support which offers parenting support and guidance to parents of children aged 0 - 4 to increase their parenting ability.
The project will involve a partnership between Bryson Family Services and Loughshore Educational Resource Centre where they will work collaboratively to address a 'gap' in provision for young people, who are not attending formal school provision, to address their individual needs through providing support needed both in the home and school environment. Over three years 80 young people aged 15 to 17 years will be able to tap into the resources available through the employment of two Personal Family Resource Workers and one Senior Family Support Worker based at Bryson House, with the aim of providing greater cohesion between education and home environments at this time of transition in the young persons life. Each of the young people will be supported into leaving school options such as further education, training and employment for up to a year after they leave.
The project will provide a mentor who will be the young person's key contact based in their school. This relationship has both educational and pastoral elements. In addition, a Personal Family Resource Worker will be allocated who will become responsible for understanding the young person's views and concerns, and who will play an active role in problem solving and devising home and community based solutions to barriers to the young person's aspirations. There will be regular joint meetings to monitor each young person's 'personal aspiration plan'. There will also be sustained relationships with training providers and prospective employers. Specific family responses will also be available and will include access to family therapy sessions, participation in self care and well being techniques and a range of self help systemic group work. As a person centred project, activities will reflect individual need and will reduce barriers to the young person achieving their goals.
Grant: £173,782 over three years
Groundwork Stoke-On-Trent and Staffordshire- Routes of Progression
Groundwork Stoke-on-Trent is dedicated to the regeneration of communities and works with partners to improve the quality of the local environment, the lives of local people and the success of local businesses in areas in need of investment and support. Its mission is 'Working in partnership to enhance the lives of people living, working and learning in Stoke-on-Trent'.
Groundwork research and work with other schools has shown that children who will fall into the NEET category in later years can be identified as early as Year 4. They plan to work in five primary schools in Stoke which are all feeder schools into a local secondary school. They will work with each of the five schools to identify the young people who are at risk of becoming NEET due to their academic achievement to date, behaviours they have demonstrated and potentially their family background, for example, second and third generation of unemployment.
They will involve eight Year Six children from each school in developing the summer school activities for their year group for the following summer. During these sessions they will work with the children to explore their aspirations, barriers to learning and engagement, their views on citizenship and then use a range of activities to engage them positively through raising their aspirations, confidence levels, self esteem, respect from their peers as well as preparing children for their secondary school experiences by identifying their concerns and overcoming them. The children will be responsible for carrying out consultation with their Year group to establish what activities they want to do and then develop entrepreneurial skills by empowering them to organise the activities and develop the programme through the after school activities they run at their Centre. The summer school will invite pupils from their whole year group to take part in the activities that have been planned by the smaller group of young people.
This will result in a week-long summer school for each class of 30 from each of the five schools, with significant input into planning and delivery from the original group of eight children. In year two a new group of eight children from each school's new Year 6 will be selected and the programme will repeat. Contact will be kept with the previous year's children as they progress into Year 7 (and then Year 8), taking part in focus group activities and providing ongoing feedback and input into the project as a whole. Overall the project will benefit a group of 40 core beneficiaries each year (a total of 120 over three years) with an additional 110 children per year benefiting from the summer school.
Grant of £174,776 over three years
