Annual Review 20162017
“Thanks for all your work with him - we really have seen a massive improvement in his behaviour and attitude since starting the programme! � Teacher, Sutton secondary school
Y u Are Here
‘R
esilience’, a word that we hear a lot. Whether that’s in term’s of building young people’s resilience, being resilient individuals or developing resilience in the ‘sector’. But what does it mean? The dictionary definition tells us that its ‘capacity to recover quickly from difficulties and not letting failure or misfortune overcome us.
Helen Gasparelli MAPS Manager
A definition that rings true for so many of our young people. A large focus of MAPS work is to support young people to build resilience. Developing individual strategies that help them overcome the challenges that they are facing in life and focus on a positive future, no matter how difficult things may be. But as an organisation, and as a sector, are we taking our own advice? It’s fair to say that there have been funding challenges for many local organisations and services over the past year. Some services have diminished completely while others have reduced their offer. However, the picture is not all doom and gloom. We have heard many stories from local charities, including MAPS, who have successfully secured funding to continue, and in some cases, grow the amazing and life changing work that they do. Here at MAPS HQ we like to take our own advice, and always focus on the positive. Showing gratitude for, and focusing on what we do have and not what we don’t. We recognise that sometimes you have to shrink and refocus, giving ourselves the chance to look to the future and concentrate on core excellence. None of this would be possible without our amazing funders! MAPS would like to say a huge thank you to London Borough of Sutton (LBS), BBC Children In Need, GamesAid and Big Lottery Reaching Communities for their support over the past year. Their backing has enabled us to work with a record breaking number of young people and change lives for the better. 1
T e Nu bers Year on year, the number of young people that MAPS support continues to rise. 2016-2017 saw us connect with over 378 children and young people across all 18 wards of the borough, which is another MAPS record! It has been a record breaking year for volunteer recruitment as well. Since launching our new volunteer recruitment strategy we have seen an 85% increase in the number of people training to become mentors. With even greater demand for our service we are keen to encourage and support as many budding volunteers as possible to join the MAPS family and support vulnerable children and young people. As well as training record numbers of volunteers across 3 rounds of new mentor training we have also delivered 2 rounds of peer mentor training engaging over 40 young people. It really is very inspiring to work in a community so engaged with supporting others. As well as providing weekly 121 support via mentoring we have provided several exciting and enriching events for our young people and volunteers which include Panto, West End theatre productions, forest school, crafty cooking session, go karting and Air Hop, we have had a mentor social, delivered 2 twilight training events, completed a volunteer and young people’s annual questionnaire, and got ourselves a new CEO.
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e Here ar ! ts the sta
Disability
%
No Disability Social/Communication Mental Health Learning Medical Illness Physical Visual
But what impact have we had on the children and young people we support? Using the 40 Developmental Assets Framework MAPS can evidence significant improvements across all measurable outcomes. MAPS can demonstrate an increase of more than 45% in constructive use of time, illustrating that young people engaged in mentoring are more active and engaged in a variety of appropriate activities in and around our community. MAPS have seen a 36% increase in commitment to learning, with young people being more motivated to do well, they are happier at school and engaging well in all aspects of school life. Additionally, our young people have shown a 30% increase in feelings of empowerment and improved confidence, building resilience and supporting their health and well-being, assisting them both now and in the future. The evidence: Mentoring Works!
MAPS are the borough provider of Advocacy support for children that are Looked After, Leaving Care or are subject to Child Protection Plans, ensuring that their voices are heard in meetings where decisions are made about them. With an 85% take up of service the need for an advocate is clear. Impact has been positive across all measurable outcomes for young people that were supported by MAPS advocacy service. Results show a 30% increase in children and young people feeling heard, demonstrating that they are being given the opportunity to express their thoughts and wishes and feel that they are being listened to. Additionally, we have seen a 27% increase in how they view their future more positively. Our results show that young people supported by advocacy feel empowered and more in control of their situation, having a voice in proceedings and an impact on the decisions that are being made about them. Importantly they are able to make their own decisions and understand the outcomes and impact on their future.
Mentoring RADA
Key: Support 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
Positive identity
Social competencies
Start Destination Empowerment
Boundaries & Expectations
Constructive use of time
Positive values Commitment to learning
Key:
Advocacy RADA childs voice heard 10 9 8 7 6 5 4
participation
3 2 1 0
Conflict resolution
Start Destination
decision making & understanding
positive view of future
Ethnicity
%
White British Mixed white black Caribbean Any Asian background within C Any other mixed background Any other white background Mixed white black African Black Caribbean Black African Pakistani Any other ethic group
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Demographics As a project that exists to serve its community, the London Borough of Sutton, MAPS takes a keen interest in the ever changing needs of its residents. With a growing population, with a diversity of needs, it is essential for MAPS to understand gaps in provision and tailor it’s service to support young people as they need to be supported. The MAPS population is diverse with over 22% of children and young people supported representing BME groups which are comparable to the borough BME index of 21.4% (2014/15). 24% of the young people that MAPS support have a diagnosed mental health issue and/or have disclosed self-harm/ Suicidal thoughts, a 9% decrease compared to the previous year. 41% of the young people we have worked with have a parent with poor mental health. Figures which demonstrate the importance of mental health support for both children and adults in our local community. 32% of the young people that were supported by MAPS during 2016-2017 have lived with or are living with domestic abuse in the home, and 20% have a parent struggling with substance misuse issues. 64% of those who have engaged in mentoring live in single parent families. For the past 3 years almost half of all MAPS referrals for Mentoring have been for young people living in four distinct wards, which are statistically the most deprived (St Helier, Wandle Valley, The Wrythe, and Beddington South). This year however we saw a shift in the demographics,
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with Sutton Central becoming the ward with more referrals than any other ward, followed by The Wrythe, Wandle Valley and Wallington North. This suggests a change in needs of young people and families living in these areas.
Location Sutton Central The Wrythe Wallington North Wandle Valley Out of Borough Sutton North Beddington South Carshalton South & Clockhouse St. Helier Belmont Worcester Park Sutton South Sutton West Wallington South Beddington North Carshalton Central Nonsuch Stonecot Cheam
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Meet the Tea us... This is
Bernie Rowe MAPS Deputy Manager
Claire Swettenham MAPS administrator
Di Gilmore MAPS coordinator
Georgina Millings MAPS coordinator
Helen Gasparelli MAPS Manager
Louise Storey MAPS Deputy Manager
Sarah Hamilton MAPS coordinator
Teresa Martucci MAPS coordinator
Tina Said MAPS coordinator 5
Case Studies Advocacy Katie was 15 years old when she was referred to MAPS for advocacy support. She had experienced abuse as a child. Katie told her advocate that she was fed up with having to repeat her story about what she experienced as a child to professionals, and said she was keen to get some help to process her childhood experiences. Katie told her advocate that school was a difficult place for her and she wanted to move schools. With her advocates help, Katie wrote down her childhood experiences so that it could be given to professionals, preventing her from having to repeat her story. She also told her advocate what she wanted to say at conference about the challenges she was experiencing and her future hopes.
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With the support of her advocate, Katie attended the conference and heard her wishes shared with the decision makers. She was delighted when all present agreed that it would be beneficial for her to moves schools, something that was implemented post conference. She was also offered support to help her process childhood trauma. Subsequent conferences showed that Katie was accessing support which she found helpful, that she was settled in a new school, was attending well and importantly had made some new friends and had positive relationships. Katie told her advocate that she didn’t need the support of child protection anymore and wanted to come off the plan, which was agreed at the next review. Katie was delighted with the outcome and said she felt very supported by her advocate. Katie’s mum even sent a message to the advocate to thank her for supporting her daughter. With the support of a MAPS advocate Katie was empowered to share her thoughts and wishes and as a result have some control over her future which is now far more positive.
Mentoring When Ellie was first referred for a mentor, she lost her temper quickly and had sudden mood changes. This anger was leading to challenges in communication with teachers and peers. When MAPS met Ellie, she hadn’t settled into life at secondary school, she was receiving regular detentions due to her temper, had few friends and felt no one understood her.
now have a best friend but had a group of friends. She admitted that she used to be very hostile towards other pupils if they tried to approach her or make conversation but now that she’s more confident she isn’t like that. Although sad that mentoring was ending Ellie did understand why, she even told us that she was confident that she could continue making progress on her own. At the end of the mentoring year Ellie was being predicted all A’s in her GCSE’s and was very much in control of her future knowing what she wanted to study and where. She was also determined to continue the positive changes she’d made.
Ellie and her mentor got on extremely well very quickly, they had conversations about school, home, friends etc. At her first goal set Ellie decided that she didn’t want to argue with people, to stay calm when issues arose and reduce her number of detentions. By the end of the year she was in better control of her emotions, she was getting almost no detentions and her relationships with her teachers had improved. Both her teachers and her mum noticed the positive change. Throughout the year, Ellie started slowly making friends, at her final mentoring session she said not only did she
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The Future 2016 saw many changes for MAPS, not least with the continuation of it’s strategic plan which is now firmly embedded. The focus for which is Inspiring Community! VCS and MAPS want to inspire community as much as our amazing community inspires us. To do this our strategic objective in MAPS are focused on 4 key areas and these are:
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1. Leading by example
2. Empowering others
MAPS will lead by example to enable the Inspiring Community, represented by our mentors, to shine. Devoting development across mentoring and advocacy to grow the programme and address unmet needs through the power of volunteering.
MAPS will be an Inspiring Community, empowering others through passionate policy response and campaigning, ensuring excellence in volunteer management and delivering transformative training and resources. MAPS will highlight the difference we makes through an assets based model of accountability.
3. Digital inclusion
4. Sustainable Delivery
MAPS will inspire community through digital inclusion, by helping those that want to connect with us to do so digitally and with ease.
MAPS will be an inspired community igniting sustainable delivery by diversifying funding routes, developing purposeful social enterprise, sharing support & infrastructure functions and committing to fundraising.
“How lucky am I that I have something that makes saying goodbye so hard” Female aged 16
“Mentoring has helped me to mature as a person and also it has helped me sort out my life” Male aged 13
“Mentoring has made me happier & given me things to look forward to” Female aged 13
“My daughter can identify her feelings now, this makes a big difference, she is no longer a school refuser” Parent 9
This year... 3 rounds of volunteer training delivered
378 young people
connected with mentoring & advocacy
people supported a diagnosed disability 19% ofhaveyoung young people supported a parent with poor 41% ofhave mental health young people supported 20% ofhave a parent who struggles with substance abuse
24%
self-harm/diagnosed mental health condition
32%
of young people supported have experienced or witnessed domestic abuse
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48
volunteers recruited & trained
ÂŁ104,884 social value generated by volunteers
158
MAPS volunteers 21-74 years Age range of mentors
270 525
Facebook friends
twitter followers
Mentees live in all
18
different wards within the Borough
Our Funders:
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I
took over as Chief Executive in January 2017 and joined a wonderful team made up of staff and volunteers who were full of enthusiasm and professionalism.
The past year has been challenging, full of uncertainty and complex factors affecting us globally, nationally and locally. However, we must always remember that people are at the heart of everything we do and the MAPS team have shown through their resilience, strength and commitment what can be achieved in a demanding environment. Not only have they reached out to support more young people and their families during 2016, they were able to adapt to this ever-changing environment and come out stronger and even more committed to supporting young people with life’s struggles. The stories of the impact this programme makes on young people and their families amazes me, and everyone should be proud of the past year. I want to say a huge thank you to all the staff and volunteers who with their spirit, flexibility and determination have made the past year a great one. What does the future hold? No doubt even more challenges. Nevertheless, I’m confident and looking forward to working with MAPS staff and volunteers, confident that we will continue to inspire community and develop further on the past achievements.
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Anita Maullin VCS CEO
“I learnt that my opinion is worth listening to!� Female aged 16
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31 West Street, Sutton, SM1 1SJ 020 8661 5900 MAPS@vcsutton.org.uk /MAPSmentoring @MAPSmentoring vcsutton.org.uk mapsmentoring.co.uk Volunteer Centre Sutton is the operational name of Sutton Borough Volunteer Bureau Registered Charity No. 1048978 A company limited by guarantee in England and Wales No. 3088644