I hope you are all keeping yourselves safe and well in these uncertain times, for many of us this is an entirely new experience and an unsettling one at that. asphaleia ventures continue to work hard on their delivery to the vulnerable young people we work with, and we wanted to give you an update on the current position of SAFE West Sussex.
Your SAFE West Sussex interventionists are taking every precaution and are working from home. They are offering phone calls, WhatsApp and Facebook communication and Skype sessions for their young people in lieu of 1-1’s and group work for the time being. If you would like to hear more about this please message via our contact page.
Unfortunately, like everyone else, we are unable to put a timeline on this but please be assured that every step has been taken to ensure that we are still reaching our young people.
In these uncertain times we wanted to share some resources that can be accessed by young people, parents, teachers and professionals in the hope that it might help someone by providing a distraction, filling their time, helping with home education work and further learning and development.
We would love to hear from our young people as to what is helpful so please also complete the short two-question survey below and give us an idea of things that will help you during this time such as resources, wellbeing checks and so on.
Resources and tips
First and foremost, a self-care book filled with self-care sheets. Perhaps appropriate for all of us during this time. Use the whole book or pull out the pages that you are drawn to and take some time out of your day to work on your self-care and mental health.
If you are home schooling why not ask your children to create an online safety poster? Examples of things to include are: their favourite apps and websites, ways they use the internet e.g. socialising, homework, gaming, and what they like/dislike about it.
Ensure that your children have enough time allocated to speak to their friends and family. This is unfamiliar and unsettling for them too. They are used to spending their days surrounded by their friends and classmates. Ensure that you have a balance of work and socialising/down time to keep spirits up and prevent isolation. This counts for all of us too!
The UK Safer Internet Centre has some excellent resources for us all to tap in to. If you follow this link and scroll down to ‘Education Packs’ you will find packs of resources from this year and previous years. As the name suggests these resources are all about using the internet safely, but each year brings a new theme.
Pace works alongside parents and carers of children who are, or who are at risk of being, exploited. They also offer guidance and training to professionals on how exploitation affects the whole family. Pace offer a 20-30 minute training on Child Sexual Exploitation for parents and for professionals. Have a look around the website for other great information and resources.
Brook learn - Talking about relationships and sex with young people isn’t always easy. To help you, Brook Learning has developed high quality digital learning to empower, support and encourage you to deliver effective relationships and sex education. Sign up for free and access their free online training, there are some for professionals and for young people.
Internet Matters - Internet matters parent pack for professionals and parents. There are some excellent resources on this website including presentations with resources, age guidelines, how to set up devices safely, plays for your children, social media guides and newsletters.
And lastly Childline offer support and advice to children and young people. They have put together some information and advice regarding Coronavirus worries. The website is a great toolbox for support.
Please share your learning, development and any thing you make with your children and young people with us by messaging us on our contact page.
For any young people reading this who feel like they need some extra support during this time please email headoffice@asphaleia.co.uk or message through the website as above. We are here to listen to you.
