General FAQ’s

I am worried about a young person, how do I get support?

If you are worried a young person maybe being exploited, then please call us for advice on 01922 681208. If it is an emergency, then please call 999 or 101

Do you charge?

Our face to face work with our referrals is none chargeable as we are currently the commissioned service for Walsall Local Authority.
Some of our education and professional trainings do incur a charge, please get in touch for more details. If you are outside of the Walsall Borough, please contact us for details.

How long do you work with people for?

How long is a piece of string. We pride ourselves on offering an open ended, none time limited service.

Are you part of a national charity?

Nope! We are proud to be independent.

What areas do you work in?

We are currently commissioned for Walsall and also offer some smaller services to Dudley and the surrounding Black Country. We also do offer some of our work to further afield, so just ask.

Young People FAQs

Will you keep what I tell you to yourself?

This is a confidential service and we know how hard it is to open up to someone new about the most private details of your life and we respect that and admire you for that. We have to by law pass on any information if we feel you are at risk of being hurt or someone else is at risk of being hurt. It is our job to protect you and others. Where possible we will always tell you when information needs to be passed on and explain why we need to do this.

What if I don’t like my worker?

This is perfectly normal and it is totally fine! We are not easily offended. We have many options for you and if you don’t gel with one worker then let us know and we can match you with another worker instead. If you prefer to work with a male or a female then just let us know!

Am i in trouble?

Firstly, you need to hear this. None of this is your fault! What is happening to you is potentially a crime and you are the victim. Even if you have been made to commit a crime, this is still not your fault and we can help you.

What if I don’t always want to meet you face to face?

Also, totally fine! All of our sessions are tailor made to suit your needs, not ours. You control this! If you want to meet us online, or over the phone, or in person, this will be on your terms and when suits you. We can suggest places to meet, but most of all it is where you feel comfortable.

What sort of things will we talk about and do together?

Again, this it totally dependant on you and the support you need. We often talk about friendships/relationships, social media, sexual health and education and training. Our support also includes activities such as go karting, cinema/bowling trips and lots of food!!!

I don’t feel like anyone listens to me about what’s going on

We HEAR you! Our job is not just to give advice, but listen to your thoughts, wishes and feelings. We make sure that we take these on board and take them seriously. We will share (with your permission) how you feel with other professionals (maybe your social worker, parent, school) to advocate on your behalf. How you feel in all of this is our number one priority and we act on your behalf.

Do i have to talk to the Police?

You do not have to do anything you don’t want to do. Obviously we would be lying if we said we didn’t have to share certain things with the police to make you and others safe, but there is no pressure for you to ever share anything with our police colleagues. If you did want to, we will be there, every step of the way for you and to explain how the process works. Sometimes you are stronger than you think!

Funders FAQs

CAN WE COME AND VISIT YOU TO SEE YOUR WORK?

We would love that! There is nothing better from our perspective than having a relationship with people who have kindly funded us. You can have the opportunity to meet our team and see what we get up to. Obviously due to the nature of our work, we would never allow you to meet any of our service users unless any of our clients wanted to share their experiences, and some do. We can’t wait to welcome you – we always provide cake!

REPORTING

We always love to share with you how we have put to use your amazing donations. This will be done in accordance with your reporting schedules and templates if you provide them. We also like to share with you any major updates that you might be interested in, separate to our reports. We also suggest you follow our social media pages so you can see what our team is up to daily.

ARE THERE ANY OTHER WAYS WE CAN SUPPORT YOU?

We are always grateful for any further support you can offer and this does not always have to be financial. We are a ever growing grass roots organisation that would always except any knowledge or expertise that you can share with us to aid in our development. E.g. We have previously benefited from infrastructure support to develop our business plans, IT support to develop our online presence and bespoke consultants to grow our ideas. We also love volunteers!

SAFEGUARDING

This is our number one priority for all of our projects and service users. Our policies are updated annually if not before (if new legislation or recommendations are released) and can be made available to you on your request.

ARE STREET TEAMS ABLE TO PROMOTE THE FUNDERS SUPPORT?

We love to stay in contact and we also want to shout about (if you agree) that you are supporting us. We happily promote your generosity on our social media pages and website if you provide your logos. If you have newsletter and comms that we can contribute to, then we can provide anonymised case studies to show the impact your contribution has had on our service and service users. We are happy to provide a narrative on our relationship with you if requested. Ask us and we will be at the ready.

PARTNERSHIP

We always want to give back where possible and if you have any events or ideas that need support, then we will be more than happy to support anything we can. We are always looking for colabs with partners of like minds. Get in touch to share any concepts!

Professionals FAQs

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FOR THE REFERRAL TO BE ACCEPTED?

We do pride ourselves on hardly ever operating a waiting list, so as soon as the paperwork has been received from triage, then that referral is allocated to a worker that has been matched to the child. We will be in contact as soon as the case is allocated so you have all of the contact details and the plan of work that we will complete.

WE HAVE A YOUNG PERSON TO BE REFERRED THAT DOES NOT FIT THE CRITERIA FOR TRIAGE.

If referrals have not met the criteria for a service, then please give us a call so we can see if we can offer something alternative. This could be workshops within schools, signposting to other agencies or maybe a one off assessment.

I HAVE A GROUP OF YOUNG PEOPLE I AM CONCERNED ABOUT.

Then let us know if this is the case. We also provide workshops for young people that are safe to be networked together and sometimes this can be the best option for young people and their peer groups.

I AM NOT HAPPY WITH THE OUTCOME OF A CASE REFERRED THROUGH TO YOU.

We have a robust complaints policy and we encourage any feedback as to inform our service development. Please email……. For the next steps.

SAFEGUARDING

This is our number one priority and we share as much information as we can with all professionals involved. The Safeguarding practices will be effected dependant upon the young persons age. We do have a separate Transitional Safeguarding policy that we will be happy to share with you. The wishes, feelings and confidentiality of our service users is paramount, but we will ALWAYS share anything that constitutes as a Safeguarding concern.

THE YOUNG PERSON I WOULD LIKE TO REFER IS NOT A WALSALL CHILD, CAN I STILL REFER?

Yes, of course, We offer one to one sessions to young people outside of Walsall. Please click here to contact us about this.

I WORK IN A SCHOOL OUTSIDE OF WALSALL, CAN YOU STILL OFFER SESSIONS?

Absolutely, click here to get in touch to discuss this further.