Free Counselling for Pupils in Secondary Schools County-Wide |
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| Congratulations!
We have been awarded the tender, which we have been working so long and hard for. Sarah was told on Friday 27th May that we had done it. Our congratulations go especially to Sarah whose foresight and planning has taken our Centre to this stage in its development. Ruth has done a press release to go in the local newspapers this week (see below) and Sarah and Liz have done interviews for Rugby FM and Fosse FM radio stations. Free Counselling for Pupils in Secondary Schools County-Wide Thanks to Rugby and North East Warwickshire Relate Local charity Rugby and North East Warwickshire Relate have just secured a tender of over £400,000, over a two year period, to take their young people’s counselling service – Time For You – into nearly every high school in Warwickshire. The tender, put up by Warwickshire Children’s Fund and Children and Adolescents Mental Health Service, was open to all the organisations that work with young people, offering a counselling service, in the Midlands area, and aims to help all Warwickshire high schools bring counselling to their pupils. Relate Rugby and North East Warwickshire already run their Time for You service in 14 schools across Warwickshire, including almost every high school in Rugby. The money awarded will mean that schools already benefiting from the service will continue to receive it at a subsidised rate, allowing the most vulnerable of pupils to be supported Sarah Curtis, Centre Manager, said “This tender will bring a very exciting period for Relate Rugby and North East Warwickshire. We believe that young people need the opportunity to express how things are for them, and that to be able to talk in an honest, open, safe environment is essential for personal growth for any person. This tender will mean we will be able to reach young people and families at a much more preventative level and hopefully help them make informed choices about the way they would like their lives to be”. The Time for You service is a support service for young people, aged between 10 and 18 years, who are experiencing family change – for example the separation of parents, coping with a new step-family, loss or violence. The sessions are free, friendly, confidential and on a one-to-one basis with one of our specially trained Time for You counsellors. The sessions aim to listen to the young people and help them find new ways of coping and living with change. The service was originally set-up in Bishop Wulstan and Harris High School, in Rugby, about six years ago Relate Time For You counsellor Liz Headley said: “The huge opportunity that winning the tender has given us can not be over emphasised. With teaching staff stretched to the absolute limits sometimes a young person’s emotional needs are not heard. Now that we, as counsellors, can be in every secondary school across the county for a period of time each week, it means that lots of young people will have the chance to feel heard and address some of their issues, helping them gain confidence, self esteem and life skills in relationship issues”. It is hoped that the new free service will be up and running by this September and any high school interested in having this service in their schools should contact us direct on: 01788 565675 and ask for Sarah Curtis |
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