The A @ W Collective Impact Initiative:
October Update
The year has rocketed along and we, like all of you, have been flat out busy. We wanted to share some of our achievements and developments, and let you know about the next meeting coming up.
Feel free to forward this newsletter to anyone you think may be interested.
Addressing Synthetic Drug use via a pie.
In July we as a community had the increased use of synthetic drugs and the horrendous impact they are having on our young people front of mind. So we got together with a number of other proactive people and organisations in our community to do something about it. The Synthetics Project has seen the Police, WDHB mental health and addiction services, Auckland Council, CAYAD, Health West, Alternative Education Consortium leaders from the West and the North, Odyssey and the Drug Foundation get together to create a working group to look at addressing this worrying issue.
In a very short time that group have: developed a short term, medium term, and long term plan; identified the resources that exist already that we can all use; and identified the resources that need to be developed to better educate our young people about the risks of synthetic drug use.
The project is being driven by the Police and A @ W. You may have already seen the newspaper article on the pie themed approach two of our police officers have been taking in educating young people in Alternative Education about the risks of synthetic drug use. Check it out if you haven’t. The feedback to this fun and innovative approach to getting the message across has been really positive.
In addition to that, a number of resources are being made available thanks to Odyssey and the Drug Foundation. You can find out how to access them by contacting the Drug Foundation OR by checking out our resource hub.
YESS: Launchpad’s into reality.
The YESS programme works with 16 to 24 year old young people considered at risk and vulnerable and addresses the barriers to education (at tertiary or trade training level) that exist for them. The programme partners with employers, education providers, financial literacy partners, and support services and works alongside young people as they enter employment and build toward their tertiary or trade training goals.
In May this year the team took their idea for YESS into the Akina Launchpad, a social enterprise accelerator programme. Over the past six months of the launchpad programme they have turned that idea into reality with Mainfreight, Countdown, Kiwibank, Banqer, Unitec, Youth Service West and Youth Connections coming on board as partners in the programme.
YESS is being piloted with a small group of young people over the next three months with a view of having that pilot inform the second phase of development in 2018.
If you are interested in finding out more please contact us.
The Managed Moves Programme
The Managed Moves Pilot Programme aims to prevent exclusions from school, and minimise the barriers to education that exist for our most at risk young people age 13 to 16. It does this by working with schools, service providers, the young person and their family, and the community to collectively come up with an education and a care plan.
The outcomes have been brilliant with more than 63 number of young people involved in the programme half of them now doing that well that we are just tracking to make sure they keep progressing, and half requiring active involvement of our Managed Moves Co-ordinator. Fourteen have been re-engaged into mainstream education, and 11 have avoided exclusion from school altogether. We’re really encouraged by these outcomes.
We’ve seen some great indirect benefits as well. Schools sharing knowledge and best practice with each other around working with our most at risk young people, teams of professionals working together to effectively navigate the systems and silo’s in which they operate to develop effective supports and solutions for young people and their families.
More than 20 young people have been involved in an intensive mentoring programme (Campus Connections) aimed at supporting transition. This runs for a few more weeks, and we will be sharing their successes in our next update. The feedback again has been great so we’re excited to see them planning for next year.
We’re really encouraged by the success already and are planting the seeds for growth in 2018.
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Achieving @ Waitakere Trust 