How we can help
At the moment we work in the following primary schools: Blaenymaes, Cadle, Clase, Clwyd, Gors, Gwyrosydd, Portmead, Seaview and Townhill. We welcome referrals from schools, parents and any other agency that thinks a child will benefit from our services.
Incredible Years groupwork programme
The Incredible Years Programme is for children between the ages of 5 - 8 years, and is delivered to a group of six children (Year One, Two and Three).
The programme offers a very comprehensive curriculum and emphasizes skills such as emotional literacy, empathy or perspective taking, positive communication skills, problem solving strategies, anger management, and appropriate school behaviours. In general, the programme promotes children's positive self-esteem and social and emotional competence, using puppetry, roleplay and modelling.
It is currently being offered in all the above schools. The programme is 18 weeks long.
REACH groupwork programme
The 'REACH' (Raising Emotional Awareness in Children) curriculum for Year Four, Five and Six children has been designed to promote positive peer social interaction, to increase cooperation with teachers and to reduce verbal and physical aggression in the classroom. The programme is practical based using activities and games to teach children the important skills needed such as working with others, improving own learning and problem solving. A Family Link Worker will meet with the children in small groups of six children each week for one and a half hours. The programme is for 18 sessions run over approximately 18 weeks with a graduation session at the end in recognition of the children's achievements and successes
DOVES
The project runs a group work programme aimed at children who have witnessed violence at some time. This group gives children an opportunity to explore their feelings and provides them with coping strategies and safety awareness.
Bereavement/loss groupwork
Working in small groups children who have experienced a significant bereavement or loss are given the opportunty to explore their feelings in a safe environment. Through practical/fun activities children are enabled to cope with their feelings.
Befrienders
The project runs anti bullying groups in schools. These are small groups of children, who have been involved in activities which constitute bullying, who are encouraged to consider their behaviour and to improve their friendship skills.
REACT
The project runs anger management groups in schools for children who may need additional help in identifying and coping with anger. The programme acknowledges that everyone feels anger and encourages children to be able to deal with their anger constructively. This course is run over eight weekly sessions.
Whole class work
These sessions are based on the Incredible Years programme and are aimed at children In Years One, Two and Three. The work begins with whole class discussions with a variety of puppets, the class then splits into small groups to complete practical activities. The class then rejoins for further discussions.
Individual one-to-one work
We also work on a one-to-one basis with many children displaying or being effected by very specific personal, social, school or family issues. This work is carried out holistically and encompasses the school life, home life and community issues in order to try and bring sustainable positive change to the child's situation. The one-to-one work is specifically tailored to each individual case and helps families with issues around self esteem, social interaciton, inappropriate behaviours, bereavement, personal issues and confidence building.
Parenting programme
We run a variety of parenting programmes in different venues across the communities of Penlan, Blaenymaes and Clase. The groups are aimed at supporting parents with the difficult task of parenting through education, support and encouragement.
Family Meeting Service
This is a service which is run on behalf of social services and aims to help parents in crisis. This service can only be referred to by a social worker.
Volunteering
Volunteering with Swansea Children Matter is an exciting and fun way of working with children and bringing positive change to a variety of situations. The work undertaken by our team of enthusiastic volunteers includes helping run children's groups on a small and large scale, supporting summer programmes and holiday groups and running groups that meet the specific needs of certain parents and children. If you are interested in finding out more about volunteering with us then you can email Nicola Ward or log onto Barnardo's main website and look for volunteering opportunities in your area.
