The Place2Be has developed an extremely robust and cost-effective way of delivering our services. Here are some examples of how we spend our money.
Materials:
- Play and art equipment
The Place2Be counsellors enable children to express their feelings and communicate their worries using play and art materials. These include dolls, animal and family figures, paints, clay, Plasticine and sand trays, all of which must be replaced at least once a year.
Staff members:
- School Project Managers
When a school welcomes The Place2Be onsite, they gain a School Project Manager; a qualified therapist who manages the project and supervises the team of volunteer counsellors who carry out the one-to-one work with the children. The School Project Manager also runs group work sessions and a drop-in service, and assists school staff members in delivering 'circle time', where pupils sit in a circle and engage in activities to develop their social and communication skills. The School Project Manager also liaises with parents, school staff members and professionals from other agencies.
- Parent Workers
Many of our schools also have access to The Place2Be's Parent Workers; professional adult therapists, who offer one-to-one counselling and group work sessions to parents and carers. Parent Workers also liaise with School Project Mangers to ensure a joined-up approach, and with school staff members and professionals from other agencies.
- Hub Managers
The Place2Be schools are organised into regional clusters known as 'Hubs'. Each Hub comprises eight to twelve schools, managed by a Hub Manager, who must be a qualified therapist. The Hub Manager oversees the quality of work across the Hub, supervising the School Project Managers and meeting with Head teachers on a regular basis. Hub Managers also attend meetings with professionals from other agencies, with statutory bodies and voluntary sector organisations. They also play a direct role in raising our profile locally in order to secure funding and attract more volunteer counsellors.
Training:
- Professional development and training
The Place2Bew is commited to continuous professional development right across the organisation. In addition to providing ongoing training to our own staff members, we also provide access to free, high quality training for all of our volunteer counsellors and part of a structured Volunteer Programme.
- Building capacity locally
It's vital that local people in each Hub have the opportunity to support the children with their community. To this end, we have developed a unique accredited training programme that enables adults from all walks of life to develop the necessary counselling and therapeutic skills to work as volunteer counsellors.
Learners receive an entry-level counselling qualification (Foundation Course in Counselling Skills for Working with Children, awarded by the Open College Network), which can act as a springboard to more advanced training.
Building capacity locally helps to ensure the sustinability of our services and also benefits the learners. In many cases, training with The Place2Be provides the vital first step towards seeking paid employment - something that's particularly significant, given that much of our work is carried out in deprived areas where unemployment is high.
Please click
here to find out more about training.