The PHASE community of support keeps on growing!
We are really pleased to have recruited and trained a whole new team of voluntary mentors since our last newsletter. They have already made quite an impact in enabling us to increase our mentoring service at Marlwood School, Castle School and community settings. A huge welcome to Phil, Brigid, Amy, Jules, Caleb, Mary, Georgina, Caroline, Bryony and Faye – thank you for catching the spirit of PHASE and walking beside our young people as we seek to empower them to believe in themselves, make positive choices and raise their aspirations. We are delighted that over 120 young people have accessed PHASE support since the beginning of the academic year!
BACK TO ‘NORMAL’
The covid restrictions forced us to find new ways to deliver our services and that’s when ‘walk and talk’ mentoring started. We found that both the Mentors and young people really liked the new way of doing things and so we have continued this service but still offer space in a setting if that’s a better fit for the individual……..Our counselling service continues at Castle School with Liz and we are really pleased that from this term Sarah is delivering counselling at Marlwood School…….Mike is delivering a series of ‘Big Ideas’ group work at Castle School (lower and Sixth Form) and many students have had the opportunity to take part in sessions around raising self esteem, managing anxiety/worry, improving body image and more……..Mike and Bryony are running ‘Take a Break’ which is a drop in during lunch break for year 7 and 8 students – for those that need some company, a chat or just some quiet time away from the crowds…….Our Academic Tutors are also ‘back to normal’ supporting disadvantaged GCSE students with Maths and Science as they work hard to fill the gaps caused by school closures – this service started small but has the potential to grow so please get in touch if you are interested in volunteering phasethornbury@gmail.com
TEAM NEWS
In the Summer we welcomed Neil Roberts, Lucy Watkins and Sarah Erskine to our team of Voluntary Directors. Neil is our Finance Manager, Lucy is heading up training and Sarah is overseeing our counselling service. We are working together to enable our services to continue and make PHASE sustainable for the future. At this time of change we said a sad goodbye for now and a huge THANK YOU to Selina, Ian and Craig who had been part of the Directors Team from the beginning and we know will always be around cheering us on.
In April we are taking part in the Tesco blue token scheme. If you shop in Tesco Thornbury please consider donating your tokens to PHASE. Funds raised through this scheme will go directly towards the delivery of a new drugs and alcohol cessation service for young people in our community. There will be more news on this in the coming months.
WATCH THIS SPACE!
We’re excited to be working on plans to expand our parenting support service having recently received some funding for this. The team are working on launching the new service in the Autumn. We know that parenting adolescents can be really hard and lonely at times, since PHASE began we have supported many parents on a one to one basis and we’re really excited to soon be able to offer more later in the year. If you are struggling with any aspect of parenting a secondary school aged young person, don’t be alone, we are here for you.
Ally Budd – Founder and Director
“When I set up PHASE my dream was for the young people in Thornbury and the surrounding areas to feel loved and valued members of our community even if they were not in a good place. To not feel alone during the ups and downs of adolescence and the same for their parents and carers. Each week when I look at the support schedule for our various settings I am blown away by the generosity of our volunteers and the funders that enable our work to happen. We are working with a wide range of needs – poor mental health, drug and alcohol misuse, trauma, risky and challenging behaviours, to name a few. It can be a hard and thankless job but the seeds of hope and positivity sown are far reaching and we’re seeing some wonderful outcomes for our young people on a weekly basis.
Marie Isles – Operations Manager
“Like many other organisations PHASE is learning and transitioning into the new normal to adapt our approach to meet the needs and demands of our service users. We continually seek and explore opportunities that will enhance our work from sourcing funding, to how our services our delivered. We are so fortunate to have increased our capacity in mentoring support and counselling over the last few months. When taking a moment to reflect its hard, not feel a surge of pride with immense gratitude to all who are involved in making the work of PHASE possible, which certainly extends to all the organisations and individuals whose donations keep our work alive. if you’d like to find out more about us, volunteering opportunities or ways you can support the work of Phase please at our website.
TEA & CAKE AT THE LAKE
On Sunday 3rd April we will be serving refreshments at Tortworth Lake which is open from 10am – 5pm. Its a much welcome opportunity to take part in this regular community event. We would love to see you there and serve you tea and delicious homemade cakes! You can meet some of the PHASE team and learn more about what we do or just enjoy a quiet stroll around the lake. The lake and grounds are free to enter, all monies raised from refreshments will go directly towards the work of PHASE. Bring your friends, families, dogs – everyone is welcome, we hope to see you there.
Update – you can see photos at the lake on our fundraising page. Thank you to everyone who has supported PHASE.
If you would consider a one off or monthly gift to support our work we would be really grateful.
£3 buys a coffee/hot chocolate for one of our Mentees
£10 per month funds 6 mentoring sessions for a young person
£20 funds a drugs & alcohol cessation session
£30 funds resources (and chocolate!) for a term of group work
£100 trains a voluntary Mentor
£120 funds six specialised counselling sessions
