What we do

Advocacy

Since 1999 Barnardo’s Hear 4 U (previously children’s rights and advocacy) has supported children and young people to have a voice, particularly those who have been experiencing mental ill health, by providing an independent community based advocacy service for children and young people.

Our advocates provide a listening ear and enable children and young people to voice their wishes and feelings. We work closely with our service users, to encourage and empower them to participate fully in all decisions made about them. Speak to us in confidence – only if you are in danger would we tell someone else.

In 2006-2007, 41% of the young people who were referred to us were experiencing difficulties at school and 26% of our referrals in that year came from schools.

Participation Work

Barnardos Hear 4 U supports children and young people’s participation in a number of ways:

•advisory group

•consultation

Advisory group

As a project for children and young people we feel that it is important that we consult with them to ensure that our service continues to meet their demands. We can not possibly know what children young people want and need unless we ask them and this is the primary reason why the Advisory Group was started. The aim of the group is to allow the project to consult with children and young people about important changes or developments that are happening both within our project and in the wider community. In the past the advisory group have been involved in:

•the recruitment of new staff and volunteers

•helping design new project leaflets

•attending youth conferences in other local authorities

•designing material for consultation with other children and young people

•learning about Advocacy and their rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Consultation

In 2007 Hear 4 U were approached by the local health board NHS Ayrshire and Arran to carry out a piece of consultation with children and young people around the issue of mental health and well-being. The aim of the consultation was to provide young people with the opportunity to participate in and inform the development of services by exploring their understanding, awareness and experiences of mental health services. Children and young people from all over Ayrshire were consulted in a number of ways:

•one-to-one interviews

•questionnaires

•focus groups

The findings were then analysed and a report was compiled and passed to the local health board.