The Place2Be

Charity Awards

Providing a place for parents

The Place2Be is a school-based counselling, support and training service. It has developed cost-effective services for vulnerable parents and children in some of the country’s most deprived areas. Targeted front-line support is crucial if society is to break the cycle of deprivation and improve life chances for these families.

In evaluating its in-school child service, The Place2Be recognised the importance of engaging with parents to ensure support had a lasting impact. Experience showed that parents needed time and support to talk through difficulties in relation to their child and their parenting approach.

With a focus on mental health issues, the charity piloted a counselling programme ‘A Place for Parents’, consolidated and refined its parent partnership model and offered training programmes to build the skills and capacity of both staff and fellow professionals.

The initiative led to a number of impressive outcomes. In 2009/10 the proportion of parents falling within the “clinical” category fell from 82 per cent pre-intervention to 22 per cent.

One parent said: “I no longer wake up in the morning dreading the day that’s about to attack me from all sides. I no longer dread going to sleep through fear of my nightmares. To keep the doors locked and curtains drawn is fine now, as I no longer need witnesses. A Place for Parents has given me strategies for day-to-day living so I am now moving onwards and upwards; no longer frightened of new experiences and ready to try anything. I have regained my self-esteem and self-respect.”

Sarah Gonshaw
Communications executive
The Place2Be
13/14 Angel Gate
326 City Road
London EC1V 2PT
Tel: 020 7923 5537

sarah.gonshaw@theplace2be.org.uk
Reg. charity no:1040756
OSCR reg no: SC038649

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