One of the country’s leading providers of school-based emotional and mental health services has been delivered an early Christmas present - a £5,620 donation from Aberdeen Asset Management enabling it to provide counselling services for children in London schools.
More young people attending schools in the Tower Hamlets area will benefit from support in dealing with life problems and issues with Place2Be using the donation to recruit and train 10 new counsellor volunteers, who are regarded as the ‘lifeblood’ of the charity.
The volunteers will work with children living with challenges like domestic violence, divorce, bullying and abuse, and develop ways to help them cope for the future. This early intervention and support can prevent childhood issues from manifesting into more serious problems later on in life, such as addiction, crime and unemployment.
Place2Be recognises that too many children live with emotional challenges, and it is currently working with eight schools in the Tower Hamlets area. Across the country, its teams provide support to children, parents and teachers in 282 schools, reaching 116,000 children each year.
Once it has been determined that a child would benefit from the support of Place2Be, a volunteer counsellor will meet with the child every week for up to one academic year, to help them overcome serious challenges and develop the emotional resilience and raise their aspirations for the future.
One Place2Be volunteer counsellor has spoken of the bravery shown by young people living amid challenging and difficult circumstances and said:
“From a young age they face violence, poverty, death and abuse and often school offers them their first meal of the day. On top of that they are expected to make it through the school day, be well behaved, be well dressed, concentrate and listen and be nice to the other children. That would be a tough ask for anyone let alone an eight year old.”
Olivia Curno, director of fundraising of Place2Be said: “Thanks to Aberdeen Charitable Foundation’s donation, we will be able to recruit and train ten of our vital Volunteer Counsellors in London who will work with up to 30 children over the school year. Our Volunteer Counsellors are the life-blood of Place2Be. They are all either qualified or in-training counsellors or therapists who provide one-to-one counselling for the most vulnerable children.”
Lynda Affleck from Aberdeen Asset Management’s London charity committee said: “The counselling service that Place2Be provides in schools makes a huge difference to young lives and helps prevent childhood issues from becoming more serious problems later in life. By training more volunteers Place2Be will be able to help even more children at a critical time in their lives.”
Earlier this year, Aberdeen Asset Management’s Charitable Foundation gave £16,800 to enable Place2Be to support more children in Edinburgh. The contribution supports the training of 36 volunteer counsellors in Edinburgh to work with up to 150 children during the school year through one-to-one counselling sessions.
The firm’s Charitable Foundation was established in 2012 to formalise and develop the Group’s charitable giving globally. The Foundation seeks partnerships with smaller charities around the world, where funds can be seen to have a meaningful and measurable impact and the firm encourages its employees to use their time and skills to support its charitable projects. The main focus of the Foundation is around emerging markets and local communities, reflecting the desire to give back to those areas which are a key strategic focus of the business and to build on the historic pattern of giving to communities in which Aberdeen employees live and work.
For more information visit http://www.aberdeen-asset.co.uk/aam.nsf/foundation/home