Author: Anthony Irtelli

We are delighted to announce that our YMCA WiSE project has received funding from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey to support children and young people at risk of sexual exploitation.

This grant from the Commissioner’s Victims’ Fund will enable YMCA WiSE to continue offering vital support for young people to cope and recover from their experiences, and to provide education and advice to guide potential victims away from harmful relationships.

The project will receive £240,000 from the Commissioner’s Office between 2022-24 that will fund two specialist workers to provide one-to-one emotional and practical support to up to 40 individuals at risk of or affected by sexual exploitation.

Working closely with other agencies, the service will help extend the age range for those accessing support in Surrey, providing independent support to individuals aged up to 25 years old.

This funding forms part of the Commissioner’s commitment to prevent harm in Surrey’s communities. This includes reducing violence against women and girls, who are disproportionately affected by sexual offences.

By committing to longer term support for YMCA WiSE in 2022, the Commissioner hopes to reduce the vulnerabilities that community services often face due to funding that is short term.

“The grant from the Police and Crime Commissioner’s Office enables this vital support for the most vulnerable young people in Surrey to continue at a time when the impact of male violence toward women and girls is being more widely recognised and better understood, investing in essential support services has never been more needed.

“YMCA WiSE works with under 26-year-olds and creates a safe, non-judgemental space where young people feel listened to and accepted, can start to understand the exploitation they have experienced, start to heal and begin to get their lives back.”

Rachael Toner, Head of YMCA DownsLink Group’s Youth Information, Advice and Counselling Services & Targeted Services

Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner Ellie Vesey-Thompson, who is leading the Office’s focus on children and young people, said: “We are really pleased to extend this important funding as part of our ongoing work to prevent exploitation and support the survivors of sexual violence. Protecting people from harm is an important part of our Police and Crime Plan for Surrey and tackling exploitation and sexual violence are some of the key factors to achieving that.

“Both the Commissioner and I are passionate about ensuring the safety and happiness of children and young people across our county. Whilst it is important to recognise that the vast majority of children and young people in Surrey will grow up happy and healthy, those who are affected by harmful relationships deserve the specialist support that organisations like YMCA DownsLink Group can provide.”

The LGBTQU+ Haven in Crawley was launched in April 2021 and has now been up and running at YMCA YAC in Crawley for just under a year, offering local young people (aged 11-25) access to weekly youth groups, as well as 1:1 support sessions, all facilitated by a dedicated team of LGBTQU+ Youth Workers and Volunteers. The funding for the service was due to end in March 2022 however Crawley Borough Council has awarded extra money to keep the service open until September. 

The service was developed by the team at YAC following several years of consultation between local youth organisations and Crawley Borough Council. Young people said they were frustrated about there being no support locally and said travelling to Horsham or Brighton to access support with Allsorts Youth Project (AYP) presented a significant barrier to them accessing support.

Safe spaces like to LGBTQU+ Haven are crucial, as we know that young people who identify as LGBTQU+ are disproportionately affected by homelessness, often caused by violence, abuse, or rejection in the family home, as well as insecure employment and mental health problems (including self-harm and suicide). Safe spaces like the LGBTQU+ Haven offer young people the opportunity to meet other LGBTQU+ young people, staff and volunteers and be their authentic self, reducing isolation, promoting positive mental wellbeing and enabling access to specialist LGBTQU+ and mental health support.

The service was initially launched as 6-month a pilot to evidence need locally, which was made possible by emergency funding from Comic Relief’s LGBT+ COVID Fund, which we were able to access by working in partnership with a local CIC called ‘Crawley LGBT’. We hoped to be able to pass this evidence on to another local organisation, who would be better placed to access funding to run the service sustainably.

The launch of the pilot service came at a crucial period, coinciding with a time where the vulnerability of LGBTQU+ young people in West Sussex was at its peak during COVID. In response to these concerns and in acknowledgement of the success of the project, we were awarded a further 6-months of funding via the WSCC Covid Outreach Management Fund (COMF) to continue supporting the young people engaged by the pilot. This has allowed us to continue supporting the vulnerable young people engaged by the project and has allowed more time for us to build evidence of the significant need for local LGBTQU+ support.

As we approached the end of March 2022, we were preparing to inform the young people involved with the project that the service would be coming to a hiatus, with no further funding identified and no handover established with any local youth organisation. However, after consultation with Crawley Borough Council in early February, we were delighted to be awarded a further £5,000 by the council, allowing us to continue offering 2 group sessions per month (one session each for our Over 16’s and Under 16’s groups) until September 2022.

We are excited that Allsorts Youth Project will begin delivering 1:1 support work from the Youth Advice Centre in Crawley at the start of March 2022 and have already begun promising conversations with AYP about them extending their group work to Crawley over the next year. We are hopeful that we will be able to arrange a handover with them over the next 6-months to ensure that the young people involved with the LGBTQU+ Haven at YAC are able to continue accessing LGBTQU+ Support in Crawley.

We have seen an increase in unaccompanied asylum seeking children requiring our support within the last 12 months. Often these vulnerable young people arrive with nothing but the clothes on their back, so a language barrier makes things even more challenging. Thanks to the support of two local translation companies, we were able to have vital documents translated into six different languages, helping us to better support the needs of these young people.

ABC Translations were able to provide their translation services for free and they have also joined our partnership programme for the coming year. Another local company, Transbright, were able to translate documents into three languages with a heavy discount in the cost. The support from these companies has helped us make our housing service more accessible and welcoming to some of the most marginalised and vulnerable young people in our communities. As a charity we rely on the support of our local business partners to continue our work, we estimate that these translations have saved us in excess of £8000, money we can now spend elsewhere.

Click here to find out more about our Corporate Partnership scheme if your business would like to get involved in supporting our work.

The 44 Challenge – You’re invited to take part! A brand new fundraising campaign created to support a range of YMCA DownsLink Group services that aim to keep young people safe, whatever they are facing.  

Why join The 44 Challenge? 

Why 44 you might be wondering? Sadly, 44 is the average age of death for someone experiencing homelessness*. We work tirelessly to prevent vulnerable young people (16-24) facing difficulties from becoming part of this terrible statistic. By joining The 44 Challenge and fundraising you can help us change lives.  

We step in to look after young people (16-24) when they are vulnerable and facing difficulties in their life. By supporting young people at this crucial stage in their lives we can prevent them from falling into a vicious circle of exclusion. We provide a range of services that aim to keep young people safe, whatever they are facing. We run Youth Advice Centres, mentoring programmes, family mediation, counselling, support for young people facing sexual and criminal exploitation, and, give those facing homelessness a safe home.  

We need you: 

But, we can’t do this without you. An increasing number of young people are reaching out to us for support and their needs are escalating; our services are stretched.  

So, will you join us in fundraising and make a change that will be good for you and change the future for others?  

How do I get involved?  

Getting involved is easy – just follow these 5 simple steps:  

1. Get inspired and choose any challenge or task involving the numbers 44, 4.4 or 440. 
2. Choose whether to make a pledge and donate yourself, or, set up a fundraising page 
3. Share your page or donate, suggested donations – £4.40, £44, £440 
4. Smash that challenge make yourself proud & complete your challenge! 
5. Share the love share what you’re doing with friends and nominate others to set up their own challenge or sponsor you. Do send us photos and share your updates using our hashtag #The44Challenge & @ymcadlg

But I can’t think of an idea relating to 44… 

No problem, we’ve come up with a pack that contains 44 ideas to do for the challenge! The pack even contains a colouring page if you’d like to get the whole family involved. Please download the pack here. 

Thank you for taking part, we can’t wait to see your challenges! 

*Source: Office for National Statistics – Deaths of homeless people in England and Wales 2020. Among men, the highest number of estimated deaths were observed in those aged 45 to 49 years. Among women, the 40 to 44 years age group had the highest number of estimated deaths.