Landmark Swansea SAIL project goes from strength to strength

• Action for Children CEO Sir Tony Hawkhead meets young Swansea parents
• Critical Swansea project funded by Treasury and Big Lottery

Families and staff at Action for Children’s Swansea Support, informal Advocacy, Information and Life coaching (SAIL) service and have welcomed the charity’s chief executive, Sir Tony Hawkhead as the landmark project for young parents goes from strength to strength after securing Treasury funding in the last budget followed by a Big Lottery grant of £500,000.

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.

Sir Tony also met young people from other Action for Children projects in the city such as Skills for Living.

Sir Tony Hawkhead said: ‘I was delighted to meet the young parents that Swansea SAIL supports so passionately as well as other young people we support in Swansea. These young parents have faced very daunting and life-changing challenges in their lives and this project is there supporting them through difficult situations such as court proceedings.

‘Having life coaches and psychotherapists available to our young parents or parents-to-be makes a genuine difference to their lives as well as our tailored plans for each individual case. The value of this work cannot be underestimated and the fact the Treasury and the Big Lottery has recognised and backed this work only underlines our commitment to those young people in our community who need it most.’

James Paton, 23, a young parent from Swansea who has been helped by the project, said: ‘Sir Tony made us feel welcome and it was nice for him to meet us so we could tell him what the project does for us. It was also important for me because I could tell him what the project means to me, it was really good to meet him.’