Empowering young people to overcome the emotional and psychological difficulties they encounter.
Improving the life chances of young people who are at risk, by empowering them to be the architects of change in their lives and avoid educational underperformance, misuse of drugs and alcohol, criminal behaviour, exploitation, self-harm, long-term mental ill-health, unemployment and social isolation. Young people come to us because they seek: specialist youth support; complete privacy; accessibility; an absence of bureaucracy; and a relationship that is independent from the adults in their life
Why the community needs usIf they are too caught up with their mental health difficulties, young people often fail to engage fully with education or employment. They can even fall into chaotic behaviour, such as drug or alcohol abuse, anti-social behaviour or self-harm.Young people attending Signpost often achieve:- improved self-confidence & resilience- improved behaviour & attendance at school- gaining employment- reduced dependence on anti-depressants- reduced abuse of drugs/alcohol- reduced criminal activity
Our impact on the communityThe nationally-recognised Clinical Outcomes through Routine Evaluation (CORE) tool, we use to monitor our client's progress, shows that in the majority of cases young people's level of psychological disturbance halves, falling below the level recommended for clinical intervention. Clients provide positive feedback, such as:"If I hadn't come to signpost for counselling, I would probably not be here. It has had a huge impact on my life" (depressed client who overcame suicidal thoughts)
From time to time we recruit more volunteer counselling trainee placements. We often need support workers to act as receptionists, enter data, undertake administration or to fundraise for us. Please see our website for details
