A new Family Group Conferencing Service has been launched by Community Family Care for families in North Somerset.

The breakfast launch, held at the Town Hall in Weston-super-Mare, was attended by social workers, early help workers and family support workers who wanted to find out more about the new service.

Family Group Conferencing empowers families to access support from relatives and friends who together come up with a plan to help solve a problem they may be experiencing. The aim is to enable children and families to safely stay together with the guidance of a Family Group Conference co-ordinator (who is not a social worker).

Community Family Care won the three-year contract for North Somerset Council, worth £150,000 by competitive tender. It has recruited several family group conference workers to provide the service from Weston-Super-Mare for a minimum of 24 troubled families per year.

Project Lead is Amanda Culverhouse, supported by Sessional Co-ordinator Teresa James.

Chief Executive of Community Family Care Mark Kingston said: “We’re very pleased to have won the contract and look forward to working with North Somerset Council.

“We’ll be providing an essential service for families who have experienced a lot of grief and trauma. The aim is to support them so that they are able to reach their own solutions.”

Community Family Care is an independent, not-for-profit agency which provides bespoke support services for children and families, building on families’ strengths to help make positive change and bring about lasting outcomes.

North Somerset Council has provided Family Group Conferencing since 2003 with an in-house team. Councillors agreed to outsource the service to external providers in 2016.

The big BoA Youth project launch is on Tuesday 23 October between 3 – 7pm and Community Family Care and BoA Town Council invite youngsters, ages 8 – 18, to drop in and meet the new youth workers and have a say in provisions going forward. 

The event will take place at the Youth & Community Centre (Frome Rd, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, BA15 1LT).
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The three new Youth Workers can’t wait to meet young people of the town and share ideas. Along with proactive conversation, there’ll also be creative and sporting activities on offer plus free pizza, soft drinks and snacks.

As part of their Youth Strategy, the Town Council has pledged over £144k over three years to the Youth Service. This includes initial contributions of £8k from the Colonel William Llewellen Palmer Educational Charity and £6k contribution from the local Wiltshire Council Area Board to help expand the service into the nearby villages, in some cases supporting existing provision. 

The funding will help to reinstate and nourish youth services in this area, which have sadly fallen by the wayside in other areas across the country.

Leader of the Council, Cllr Dom Newton, who authored the Youth Strategy and holds this project close to his heart, said:

"We’re hugely excited to see the relaunch of youth provision in the town, and to be working with Community Family Care.  Our aspiration for the service is very much that it reflects our young people’s needs and helps them to develop in their role as a key part of the town’s future, and over the coming months we look forward to seeing the service grow and flourish."

We hope that the new Youth Club provision and affiliated projects will be well attended, and if you’d like to find out more, please contact Community Family Care on 01452 840999 or via info@communityfamilycare.co.uk​.

Click here for more information about BoA Youth.

Community Family Care has received a pat on the pack from Gloucestershire Police for its Art Journal project.

Police and Crime Commissioner Martin Surl and his deputy Chris Brierley visited the team and saw some of the art journal work in progress and presented a plaque to Community Family Care.

Earlier this year, they awarded Community Family Care £10,000 from the Commissioner’s Fund to run the Art Journal project with young people in the Tewkesbury area who have experienced or witnessed domestic abuse.

The new one-year pilot project, in co-operation with the local PCSOs and Neighbourhood Policing Team, involves 12 groups across schools and the local community within Tewkesbury Borough.

​Each young person, in either a one-to-one session or a group session of up to six people, creates their own art journal which is theirs to keep and add to. This supports resilience and arms them with the tools to cope at times of need and stress.
 
The programme uses a variety of therapeutic techniques to improve positive mental health and boost emotional wellbeing.
 
Community Family Care is a registered charity which supports families all over Gloucestershire. It is part of Community Foster Care, an independent agency which provides foster carers for children all over Gloucestershire.

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Community Family Care is seeking some new trustees to join our board, and the board of our sister charity, Community Foster Care.

Our board of trustees is made up of people with a variety of skills, experience and knowledge which helps us to develop, strengthen and grow the services we offer to children, young people and their families. 

We meet three times per year at our Staunton offices and once per year at CFC's office in Lancaster. This is a strategic meeting covering the business and finance aspects of the charities.

Trustees are also expected join a sub-group with which they’d like to engage. Our current sub-groups  include finance, investment, safeguarding and foster children.

If you think your skills could strengthen our board and would like to discuss this exciting opportunity further, please get in touch with our board secretary, Kathy O'Keeffe, on kathyo@communityfostercare.co.uk.

Community Family Care’s new art project for mums and dads has received an £800 boost.

The grant from the Thomas Wall Trust will enable the Family Care team in Staunton to launch a new art journal project for parents who may be struggling to cope with the demands of family life.

The aim is to help build their confidence and self-esteem by allowing them to explore their thoughts and feelings, using art journals as a coping tool.

The pilot course will run for six weeks in Gloucester, starting in February.

Sasha Hart, Manager of Community Family Care, said the grant would make a big difference.

“Parenthood isn’t always plain sailing and finding yourself unable to cope can bring some mums and dads to a state of near helplessness. We have run art journal courses for children with a lot of success. This grant will enable us to use many of the same techniques to help their parents.

“If the pilot course is successful, we hope to roll out the service across Gloucestershire.”

Community Family Care is a registered charity which supports families all over Gloucestershire.

The Thomas Wall Trust, established in 1920, provides grants to charities active in serving the social and/or educational needs of their communities, especially where a grant can make a real impact in improving the lives of local people.      

Community Family Care is delighted to receive a £3,000 grant to fund art workshops for children.

The four groups will take place in Gloucester and will enable young people who are experiencing difficulties to explore their thoughts, feelings and emotions through art.

Community Family Care’s Art Journal project was launched in response to the need for effective emotional and mental health support for some young people. It has helped to improve the emotional wellbeing of more than 100 young people in the last year.

The donation was provided by the Santander Foundation which offers Discovery Grants to UK registered charities for projects that help disadvantaged people in local communities. 

Community Family Care, based in Staunton, is a registered charity which supports families all over Gloucestershire. 

Manager Sasha Hart said: “We’re delighted to receive this grant from the Santander Foundation. Our Art Journal project has helped young people with self harm, self-confidence and anger issues to use art to reflect, learn new coping strategies and improve their emotional wellbeing. 

“Thanks to Santander we’re now able to offer the project to even more young people.”

Amy Slack, Manager at the Santander Foundation, said: “The Santander Foundation makes hundreds of donations every year to good causes throughout the UK. We are committed to playing a key part in the community and we are delighted to be supporting Community Family Care and hope the donation makes a real difference.”

​Community Family Care has launched a ground-breaking support service for schools. 

From September 2017, primary schools who subscribe to the Family and Child Support for Schools Service (FACSS) will be able to get help from a professional child support worker by calling a family support hotline.

The experts provided by Community Family Care will offer case-specific support, advice, information and guidance.

Sasha Brown, Family Care Manager for CFC, said many primary schools fall through the net when it comes to family support. 

“With social care thresholds rising, an increasing number of young people and their families are falling through the support net. 

“Schools find themselves taking on more responsibility for issues that fall outside of their education remit. They are experts at teaching, but they don’t always have the expertise or resources to provide family support. Nor do they have the budget to employ a family support worker.

“Often the role becomes an add-on to a teacher’s workload – and teachers have little or no back-up.”

FACCS is a unique subscription service that gives schools access to independent advice, information and guidance from experts at an affordable cost. It can also provide toolkits for intervention, training, supervision and access to a network of Family Support Workers and peer support groups. 

“It’s all about early intervention,” said Sasha. “If we are able to guide schools and families along the right lines at primary school, it can prevent all sorts of major issues developing further down the line.” 

Anyone interested should contact sashab@communityfamilycare.co.uk.
  
Community Family Care helps families, children and young people in need of support. It seeks to improve parents’ confidence, help with routines to get children to school, or more complex support dealing with challenging behaviours at home.

Community Family Care is over the moon that its Art Journal project is a winner in a national competition.

The charity, based in Staunton, has been awarded £10,000 to set up art projects in Gloucestershire for troubled children who have difficulty expressing their thoughts and feelings with words.

The money comes from the Aviva Community Fund which offers grants to community projects that make a difference.

Sasha Brown, Family Care Manager for CFC, is delighted that the Art Journal Project beat competition from hundreds of entries.

“It’s fantastic news and we’d like to thank everyone who voted for us,” she said.

She also thanked Blackdown Financial Services which nominated the scheme on behalf of CFC.

The aim is to run 12 Art Journal groups for children aged 8 to 18 in Gloucestershire.

“Young people face increasing social and educational pressures that they don’t always have coping strategies to deal with. Everyday stresses can become too difficult to manage and some young people turn to harmful or destructive behaviour as a result,” said Sasha.

“There is a clear need for early intervention support to help them manage. Art Journals are a therapeutic way of doing that. Specially trained staff guide and teach young people how to use art to boost emotional wellbeing.” 

Community Family Care helps families, children and young people in need of support. It seeks to improve parents’ confidence, help with routines to get children to school, or more complex support dealing with challenging behaviours at home.