What we do

Barnardo's Marlborough Road partnership has been supporting young people since the 1970's. Over the years the services have changed to reflect changes in young people’s lives and to promote good practice and innovative work.

The young people using our services have had extremely chaotic and disrupted lives. Childhoods have been destroyed by abuse, neglect, crime, illness, violence, drugs and alcohol and unimaginable misery. Our services help young people rebuild their lives and give them a chance to go into adulthood with a sense of achievement, a belief in their own abilities to cope and deal with the adult world and hopefully the capacity for happiness.

Currently the services we provide are

Supported housing:

We provide supported housing for

• Cardiff young families
• Newport young families
• Eastside - single black and minority ethnic young people in Cardiff
• Seren - young black and minority ethnic young women fleeing domestic violence in Cardiff
• Westside - single young people in Cardiff.

Our supported housing services work with young people to prepare them for independent living. We help them pay their bills, furnish their flats, learn to cook, get into education or employment and more. When the young people are parents, we work with them and their children to establish good parenting skills and happy and resilient children.

Young people work on individual plans and take part in group activities. All our work is led by the needs and wishes of young people. Sometimes we go on trips or work with other agencies to provide training and information. Sometimes young people need time to talk about their childhood and to figure out what has happened in their lives. Sometimes young people need support in an emergency – they can access support at any time.

Many young people work with us for two to three years. It takes time for young people to trust us and to build up a relationship with staff. Often their previous experiences have left them with a great deal of sadness and without the skills to negotiate positive relationships. When young people move on from our services many stay in touch for years to let us know how they are doing and share with us the highs and lows of adulthood.

Support for young parents

We support young parents through individual and group work. Young parents meet as a group and decide on a programme of activities. The group meet weekly and invite speakers to attend, go on trips and discuss issues that matter to them and their children. They focus on how they can access education, training or employment. They look at the particular difficulties that face young parents.

Caterpillar service

This service works with young people aged 12-21 who are experiencing mental health issues.  Our aim is

• to offer young people positive and non judgemental support to enable them to effectively access other provision and build the capacity to enjoy happiness
• to campaign with young people to influence policy makers to provide and improve services for young people experiencing mental health issues
• to work with statutory and voluntary agencies to offer learning and development to reduce the stigma of mental health with children and young people.

Bounce Back

A schools based project for pupils in Years 10 and 11 to help them talk through any issues that will enable them to stay at school.  Issues can include bullying, bereavement or depression.

Out There Service, Newport

This is a service for disadvantaged young people aged 14-19 who currently exist outside of all provision and who have multiple and complex needs.  These young people will not be engaged in education, employment or training (NEET).  The nature of their disadvantage makes them vulnerable to problems such as substance misuse mental health issues and child sexual exploitation which serve to exclude them further from society.

We are currently running a pilot project for 8-11 year olds where behavioural/emotional issues have been identified by schools or parents. Individual support is offered using the trusted adult model with some group work where appropriate.