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Action Squads
Helping Families Stay Together
Our Mission
Helping families stay together services, deliver a county wide service of immediate, short, medium- and long-term family support, including a bespoke therapeutic service for up to a maximum of six months.
The services work with an age range of 0-18-year-old (up to 25years for young people with a disability or care leaver) and their immediate and extended families.
We are committed to improving the lives of children and their families. Ensuring that they have access to every available opportunity to seek and make positive long-lasting changes.
The children and young people we support face the most difficult problems in life. Some don’t have the basics, from the love and care of family to regular routines such as mealtimes or the guidance that all children need to grow to be healthy adults. Others have to overcome physical or emotional challenges that hold them back. We help these children to fulfil their potential by providing services to support their individual needs. We succeed in helping children and young people to overcome difficulties at an early stage to tackle problems before it’s too late.
Through our work and through speaking out, we seek to break the cycle of deprivation. We challenge injustice and empower children to overcome the obstacles in their lives that hold them back. We tailor our work to local circumstances, in partnership with children and young people, families, communities and local organisations.
We work with children and young people:
- whose families need support
- who cannot live with their birth families
- who experience severe difficulties in their lives.
Our values
Passion - we are driven by our desire to help children and young people overcome injustice and disadvantage
Equality - we believe all children and young people have equal worth and equal rights
Hope - we believe in a child or young person's potential, no matter what they have experienced or what they have done
General Interests
Mentor
Come and be a volunteer mentor for us!
Location- Northamptonshire
Can you:
Work alongside one of our experienced family support workers to mentor a young person or parent, based on their identified needs.
Provide a listening ear and guidance to parents and their children
Support young people/parents to achieve their potential by supporting them in the community
Some of the children we work with would love someone to simply kick a football with, or listen to their hopes, worries, and dreams -encouraging them
What you can expect:
Provide emotional and practical support to the child. Giving them good sound appropriate advice.
Selecting your weekly activities with the child.
Complete plans for each session you have together and email them to your volunteer coordinator on a weekly basis.
Speak with the parent/carer when dropping child back home, focusing upon the positives of the child’s behaviour, so the child can hear good things being said about them.
Feedback any concerns you may have about the wellbeing of the child to your volunteer coordinator or project manager asap.
Attend monthly supervision sessions with your volunteer coordinator
Participate in Mentor Forums or any other Mentor group activity.
What we can offer:
Gaining valuable social care experience, working with children and their families
Wonderful opportunity and very beneficial for students or people looking to study and work in the social care sector.
Learning about how best to support children living in difficult situations, whilst being fully supported in your practice.
Improving your employability skills for future employment
Improving your confidence to work with children and their families
Being actively involved in your local community
Meeting new people, making new friends
Gaining a sense of pride and self-worth and feeling good about just 'giving something back
Northamptonshire Community Short Breaks PMLD
Mission Statement
Northants Short Breaks Service (SBS) is a county-wide service providing short breaks to children and young people and their families, supporting a range of ages and needs
We have an inclusive approach that takes into account age, disability, and wider needs. It fits with our ethos of believing in the importance of allowing children and young people to socialise and develop relationships with other children and young people, regardless of their age, need and ability.
The SBS staff are highly committed and dedicated. We provide a safe, fun and consistent environment for children and young people to be themselves. Children and young people have the opportunity to socialise with peers, build confidence, resilience, self-esteem, and independence. Our clubs are a place to relax and have fun while learning and trying both new and familiar activities that help them to develop and grow. Action for Children staff provide and respond to the emotional, behavioural, physical, and medical needs of each child and young person.
Who we support
Children and young people in Northamptonshire, aged 5 to 18, with a range of needs, such as Moderate Learning Disabilities (MLD), Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), Asperger’s, and Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities (PMLD).
Parent, carers and families who have a child/children with a disability.
Disability Short Break Support Mentor
Disability Support Assistance
Disability Support Assistance
Be rewarded and have new experiences, volunteer with us as an Disability Support Assistance.
Can you:
- Be patient and reliable
- Have experience of or the desire to support children/young people with disabilities
- Have good communication skills
- Are able to work alongside a variety of different people
- Have a positive attitude
- Use your initiative but also ask for help when needed
- Be willing to challenge discrimination.
What you can expect:
- Interacting with service users, whilst listening to what they have to say, to make their voice heard
- Supporting with reading and writing tasks when needed
- Join in and helping with activities.
- Contributing to children/young person’s social, emotional and educational development
- Keeping records of activities including session and travelling times
What we can offer:
- Getting to know some great people!
- Gaining experience in supporting children and young people with disabilities
- Enjoying sense of personal satisfaction
Action for Children does what’s right, does what’s needed and does what works.
