Listen Up - Social Welfare Portal

listenup!98 | Case Study 3How the project addresses gaps in localservice provisionThe population of the London Borough of Newhamis incredibly diverse, comprising large communitiesfrom all over the world and with over 80 languagesbeing spoken in schools. There are high numbers ofrefugees and asylum seekers, and unaccompaniedminors arrive every year. Social deprivation is high,and housing is poor, dense and overcrowded.Additionally, the borough has the youngestpopulation in the country.Resistance to accessing traditional services is high;the general problems that young people havein feeling alienated from statutory services arecompounded in this area by language and culturalbarriers. Community Links has attempted to addressthese issues through projects that reach out tothe community, and aims to offer services thatare sensitive to different cultural needs as well asyoung person-friendly. The mental health provisiongrew from the identification of a lack of accessiblecounselling services in the area; services were foundto be formal and to have long waiting lists. A lack ofholistic support for young people with mental healthproblems also drove the development of the YouthEmployment Project, offering combined practicaland therapeutic support.Barriers and constraints which impedeeffective provisionObtaining funding is challenging, due to theinnovative nature of the service; mainstream moneyfrom the statutory sector tends to be granted tomore conventional services. This can be frustrating,particularly when the service identifies a need in thecommunity and finds it difficult to raise monies todeliver a short-term project to respond to this need. Ingeneral, the service has found that the nature of thecommissioning process, where priorities are set by thefunding bodies, can inhibit the community’s ability torespond to local need and find solutions together.ContactsCommunity Links105 Barking RoadCanning TownLondon, E16 4HQTelephone: 020 74732270Website: www.community-links.org