INNOV8 WORKSHOPS
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Mission Statement
Our ambition is to support hard to reach young people to help them “fulfil their potential”. We do that by providing one-to-one mentoring combined with vocational training, using the Theory of Self Determination as our guide to helping our young people address the issues they face. Our young people are EBSA (Emotional Based School Avoidance) or school refusers, or have mental ill-health or Social; Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs. We have students who are being home educated and some students who have been permanently or temporarily excluded from school for disruption or other behavioural issues. Some of our children have dysfunctional family lives and many are from underprivileged backgrounds. Our children are aged 4 - 18 years old and mainly live in East Suffolk. As a way to fulfil potential we are focused on reintegrating our young people into mainstream school, helping them achieve a place in College and ultimately in employment.
About This Cause
Innov8 Workshops is a wellness and vocational skills provision helping the most troubled of the 4500 ‘excluded’ and SEMH children in Suffolk who are struggling in the education system. Our students come to us from Specialist Schools; Alternative Provision Academies; Children in Care; and Mainstream Schools that are using Alternative Provision therapies to change behaviour. Our young people are EBSA (Emotional Based School Avoidance) or school refusers, or have mental ill-health or Social; Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs. We have students who are being home educated and some students who have been permanently or temporarily excluded from school for disruption or other behavioural issues. Some of our children have dysfunctional family lives and many are from underprivileged backgrounds. Our children and young people are aged 4 - 18 years old and mainly live in East Suffolk. We use practical vocational teaching; combined with 1:1 mentoring in a non-institutional environment to build self-determination and confidence and achieve positive outcomes and improve those young people’s prospects in life and allow them to fulfil their potential. We operate from a converted office building on the outskirts of Bury St Edmunds. We provide vocational workshops for approximately 70 children and 230 hours a week in Woodworking, Mechanics, Music, Arts, Functional Maths & English, Salon, Cooking, Fitness, Outdoor activities, Outreach, Under 11s and over 16s. innov8 Workshops has over 20 different schools, provisions and Suffolk County Council referring young people to us and we are operating at maximum capacity. We are a Suffolk County Council registered provision. Our approach of one-to-one mentoring combined with vocational training, using the Theory of Self Determination as our guide to helping our young people address the issues they face, is achieving very positive results. We are also working increasingly closely with other agencies; Social Care, Family Services and the Educational Access team within the Local Authority, Turning Point, CE Hubs, Youth Offending, Schools, Educational Welfare as we recognise many of the challenges our young people face need a broad range of support. Alongside greater cooperation with all organisations involved in alternative provision, we have developed our own capabilities by training our mentors in Trauma and psychologically informed practice, the practical application of Self Determination. We are also an approved exam centre for the delivery of Functional Skills to help our young people achieve qualifications which can help them enter college or employment. We are currently undergoing a research project with Cambridge University’s Education Department – Assistant Professor Ros McLellan. Innov8 Workshops Outcomes We are seeing very significant improvement in behaviour and almost all the children want to attend. The 1-1, non-institutional nature as well as sessions that are student led, Deliver huge improvements in behaviour. Feedback from parents and schools is positive and case studies support this. It is clearly key that we measure the impact of what we do and that we strive to increase the visible benefits over time as we seek to play a more significant role in addressing the overall challenge – so this is very much work in progress. 1) Wellbeing – Leuven Scale Over the last year we have seen approximately 90 different students and we have seen an improvement in engagement, behaviour, manners, respect, and enjoyment for nearly all of those. These elements are similar to the Leuven scale and are measured after each session by the mentor and scored on a scale of 5 with high scores suggesting better outcomes. This allows us to look at individual young person progression and areas that require greater focus. We currently aim to get 80% of those scores in the 4-5 range. Importantly, if these scores aren’t consistently high we can then adjust our approach with an alternative workshop or with outreach. 2) Attendance We have had very high levels of attendance over the last year with attendance at over 90%. This is an important measure and confirms our belief that the young people attending innov8 enjoy our different approach. 3) Hard outcomes We are clear anecdotally that we are achieving some success at “reintegration”, however, measuring that is important. The number of children who return to school, reach college, or enter employment are key outcomes to measure and to drive higher. Of the 90 children who were referred to innov8 Workshops, 20 were reintegrated into mainstream education, 5 achieve college places and a further 5 achieved apprenticeships.