Beneficiary Spotlight - The Cottage Family Centre
We gave the Cottage Family Centre £19,500 to fund a new approach to tackling mental health issues and poor educational engagement in young people in the Kirkcaldy area of Fife.
The Cottage Family Centre was established in 1987 in Kirkcaldy.
The focus of the work at the Centre is to provide a range of support to families and individuals who are vulnerable to social exclusion as a result of poverty, unemployment, poor housing, relationship breakdown, drug and alcohol problems and health related issues.
This funding supported the Centre to provide one to one therapeutic sessions to individual children and young people, parental support groups for parents to discuss issues around parenting, anxiety, stress, conflict, and behaviour strategies and supported the Centre to provide an Adolescent Mental Health Programme.
This support ensures that the children and young people involved can be successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and healthy, safe and responsible citizens.
The Adolescent Mental Health Programme gives individuals a personalised exercise programme with one on one sessions, 5 days a week with a dedicated trainer. The individuals also receive weekly therapeutic sessions from a qualified therapist.
The young people referred to this project are estranged from the education system and do not attend school regularly, have multiple social, relationship and educational problems causing them to withdraw from formal education, social situations and society generally. Further to this, the participants all suffer from varying degrees of mental health issues i.e. anxiety and social phobia.
A lot of the young people referred are suffering from varying degrees of mental health and emotional well-being concerns. More often than not they are found to be using alcohol and drugs as a tool to help them escape the anxieties they are experiencing and as a release from their often chaotic home life situations. Many of these adolescents are involved in criminal behaviours within the local community and are regularly having involvement with the Police.
Case Study:
Joe is 13 years old and lives with his mother and 2 younger brothers in the Kirkcaldy area. Joe’s parents separated in 2016 causing an impact on Joe’s emotional well-being. In 2017 Joe was referred to the Cottage Family Centre by his school, due to the growing concerns for Joe and his younger sibling’s emotional well-being. Joe appeared emotional, regularly upset and unsure why. Joe would often wander out of class to seek adults to chat with.
The school identified that Joe’s resilience and coping mechanisms were deteriorating in the classroom environment. Joe’s attendance was poor and at home, mum described Joe’s behaviour as violent. Joe would be aggressive towards his family members, hitting and lifting his hands and feet to others. In addition to this, Joe’s attendance at school significantly dropped and he began to not only struggle with his anxieties but with his schooling also. Joe’s home life was very chaotic and erratic; Joe had a very irregular routine and more often than not wasn’t eating or sleeping which had a huge contribution to his ability to function on a day to day basis. Joe felt that he was not heard within his home environment and had a lot of pressures placed on him due to this factor, Joe failed to view his home as a safe and nurturing environment.
Joe has been engaging with The Adolescent Mental Health programme for 6 months now and had attended 5 days per week. He always works hard within the gym environment and is open within his therapeutic sessions.
During the time the Cottage Family Centre have seen significant changes in his presentation, mental, emotional and physical well-being and increased engagement in his schooling.
At the start of Joe’s journey, through physical exercise and therapeutic support Joe had asked his therapeutic worker ‘When will my head come up?’ We can now say with confidence that Joe’s head has come up. Joe has told the therapist he now feels**** “his voice is now heard both within the school environment and in particular his home environment”. He now feels that he has the confidence to express his opinions in a firm manner and has developed the ability to appreciate the worth his opinions hold.
Over the last quarter, Joe’s attendance and engagement with his schooling has increased by 20%. Joe feels empowered to makes progressive and confirmed decisions regarding his education and learning going forward. Joe has switched his views from a negative stance to a positive stance in areas which question how satisfied he feels about himself and how good he feels about himself.
This funding has facilitated the improvement of family functioning; it has increased confidence and self-esteem in our young people and has provided the young people involved with the understanding that they have choices within their lives. It has enabled them to identify situations and circumstances around them which are contributing to their poor emotional well-being and strive to positively change their outlook and future life chances.
The Cottage Family Centre
"We are pleased that society, the fundraisers and supporters are acknowledging the ever growing mental health and well-being issues that affect or young people in our communities today and have chosen to invest in this project. Your support is valuable and is very much appreciated."