The Community Family Care team at Community Foster Care has won a one-year contract to provide a targeted youth service across Melksham for Wiltshire Council. 

The £10,000 contract, won by competitive tender, will mean providing one-to-one support for young people, aged 13-19, identified as needing help to prevent problems escalating and who are not accessing other services.

“We’re excited to expand our provision in to Melksham, enabling more young people to realise their ambitions,” said Chief Executive of Community Foster Care, Mark Kingston. 

“We are confident that our experience of supporting young people gives us an understanding of the complex dynamics at play for young people and a unique insight into different ways of working to achieve outcomes.  

“We’re looking forward to taking a tenacious and innovative approach to working with young people in Melksham. 

“We have a broad range of experience across different aspects of provision for young people to draw upon combined with a passion for enabling the voice of young people.” 

Amanda Culverhouse has joined Community Family Care as Project Lead for the new Family Group Conferencing Service launched in North Somerset.

After a 16-year career in Human Resources and six years as a mediator in situations such as bullying and harassment, Amanda trained in Family Group Conferencing in 2017.  Since then she has also provided advocacy for young people in Somerset.

She and a sessional team of FGC co-ordinators will deliver the service from Worle for a minimum of 24 referred families per year for North Somerset Council.

“Most of the families we work with are put forward for support by social workers, usually when relationships have broken down and a child may be about to go into care,” said Amanda.

“We bring together the family’s relatives, friends and maybe neighbours and help them to come up with solutions that keep the family together in a safe and supported environment. The service is often a lifeline to families who don’t know where else to turn.”

Manager of Community Family Care, Sasha Hart, said: “We’re proud to have Amanda to lead on our new Family Group Conference service. Her experience and ability are invaluable and we’re excited to have her on board to launch the service.”

Community Family Care won the three-year contract for North Somerset Council, worth £150,000,  by competitive tender.

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

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.”