Help for teen parents in Northumberland support project

Posted by The Journal on Feb 12, 09 09:06 AM in Clubs/Societies

Sharon Dunbar of Northumberland Housing Support, based in Cramlington Children's charity Barnardo's has begun a project in south-east Northumberland to help teenage parents get into training, work or education.

The scheme is based at the charity's Northumberland Housing Support project, in Cramlington, and has won a ÃÂ£148,000 grant from the Working Neighbourhoods Fund.

The money will be used to provide intensive support to vulnerable young people, aged 16 to 19.

Support will be provided both on a group and one-to-one basis, with the aim of developing parenting skills, raising the young people's aspirations, increasing their employability and improving skill levels.

The project also aims to educate young people on the consequences of teenage pregnancy.

Sharon Dunbar, pictured, children's services manager of the Northumberland Housing project, said: "We are working with 25 young parents at the moment and are particularly excited about the opportunities for working with young dads, who don't often access such services.

"A lot of the work will be in breaking down some of the barriers there can be in getting the young people back into education and training.

"We'll be working on their self-confidence and self-esteem, looking at the support they have and any problems they may have with child care."

The service is being delivered in a range of venues, including a number of children's centres.

It is considered innovative because, although the focus is on improving young people's employability, it has been recognised that a whole range of basic needs, such as self-esteem and confidence building, have to be addressed first.

The new service is a pilot project between Barnardo's, local children's centres, teenage pregnancy teams and Connexions.

Wansbeck has a high incidence of teenage pregnancy and the new scheme gets young parents to talk about their aspirations so that they can be pointed towards existing training schemes or have one tailor-made for them.

Barnardo's Northumberland Housing Project is a long-established service working across the county with vulnerable young people, often those who have come out of the care system or who may be homeless or at risk of homelessness.

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