The Sutton Coldfield team offering a listening ear and support
Staff at a community hub, which celebrates ten years this summer, say they are supporting more children than ever, who are facing mental health challenges.
And Our Place Support Community Hub has also urged anyone in need of help or free advice on Benefits, Housing or Employment to get in touch.
Our Place was formed in 2011 with the aim of bringing vital advice and support services to the area, supporting people of all ages. And, from May 28, they will return to offering advice in face-to-face sessions at their Farthing Lane base.
The hub was founded by Kelly Round, who said: “We encouraged voluntary advice and support services to come and base themselves with us.
"There are those who rent rooms from us which include counselling and support services.
"There’s also a support group that support children with dyslexia, a music group for adults with disabilities and coffee mornings for parents of children with autism. It’s very varied. That’s our building!
“Usually before Covid we were seeing 700 visitors a month through the building so it was busy,” Kelly adds. “We have grown into delivering other projects.
“We have a mentoring scheme supporting children from six up with mental health challenges. Children’s mental health is one of the biggest difficulties that families are working through.
"We are supporting 65 children with one to one support at the moment, the most we have ever supported in one time. That is because of the impact of Covid.
“Over the years the complexity of the referrals have changed and there are more high-risk cases now.
"We have had to upskill our team to support the children in our community. It’s emotionally challenging sometimes.”
And the hub also has a vital advice service.
“It’s free for everyone to access in Sutton. We encourage people to come to us with any questions, needs or support around benefits, housing or employment,” said Kelly.
“People often come to us at crisis point rather than an earlier stage, when they are being evicted, have had court notices, or have fallen behind on rent.
“We are there to support anyone. It could be families have had benefits taken off them when new assessments come through.
“We can help them make appeals and have benefits reinstated, or if families need to claim benefits for the first time we can offer advice.
“We have increased capacity by 50 per cent so we can support more people in Sutton.”
For advice, call 0121 354 4080, email enquiries@ourplacesupport.org or visit www.ourplacesupport.org
