Action for Children’s Swansea Support, informal Advocacy, Information and Life coaching (SAIL) service has officially launched the £500k Big Lottery funded arm of the project at Penlan Methodist Church in Penlan, Swansea. Families, staff and partners gathered to celebrate this great landmark for young Swansea families with young ambassador James Paton helping to cut a celebratory cake with SAIL service coordinator, Alison Long.
Swansea SAIL is a service that offers one-to-one and group support for young parents and parents to be aged 14 to 25 years old living in the city. The project tailors an approach that suits individual needs including support from a life coach or a systemic psychotherapist, informal advocacy, individual or couples therapy, preparing for court and dealing with having a child in foster care or adopted.
The service also helps our young parents or parents to be with wellbeing, emotional resilience, isolation, self-esteem and confidence to help them become the best parents they can be.
Alison Long said: ‘It was so exciting to officially launch the Big Lottery funded aspect of this vital project and cut the celebratory cake with James Paton. Many of the young people we work with have had very tough starts in life and we’ll be right in there supporting them through difficult situations such as court proceedings.
‘Having life coaches and psychotherapists available to our young parents or parents to be will make a genuine difference to their lives as will our tailored plans for each individual case. The value of this work cannot be underestimated so we’re delighted the Big Lottery is underlining their recognition of this work with such generous funding as SAIL goes from strength to strength.’
James Paton, 23 from Blaenymaes in Swansea said: ‘I’ve had great support from Action for Children through their tenancy support service and the Little Steps Big Steps project. I’ve had anxiety and depression and they’ve always been there for me, always someone to talk to. It got so bad, I really didn’t want to be here but the support from Jo Williams and the Action for Children team brought me back up and rebuilt my confidence. I’m so glad the Lottery support has been granted to the project so they can keep their great work going for me and everyone else who needs it.’
For further media information please contact Alastair Love, media officer at Action for Children, on 02920 347068 / 07872 675688 / alastair.love@actionforchildren.org.uk
Out–of–hours enquiries should be directed to the duty press officer on 07802 806679/ media.team@actionforchildren.org.uk
How Action for Children works: from before they are born until they are into their twenties, we help disadvantaged children across the UK. We help them through fostering or adoption – and by intervening early to stop neglect and abuse. We make life better for disabled children. We influence policy and advocate for change. Our 7,000 staff and volunteers operate over 600 services, improving the lives of 390,000 children, teenagers, parents and carers every year. We succeed by doing what’s right, doing what’s needed, and doing what works for children.
For more information, visit actionforchildren.org.uk or follow us on Twitter @actnforchildren
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