Celebrating 10 years of The Gifted
Impacting lives of disadvantaged young people is the reason The Gifted exists. In 2023 we are celebrating 10 years, having reached over 6,000 young people since we began in 2013. A lot has changed over the passed 10 years. We have seen lots of societal changes, cuts to public funding, not to mention a global pandemic. During this time, The Gifted has been able to react and adapt to the changing times. We have been able to continue to keep Young People at the heart of everything we do.
Even with so many changes around us, our vision has remained the same. That is for children and young people affected by disadvantage to lead healthy, happy lives. Last year alone over 600 young people across West Essex, East Hertfordshire, Enfield and North East London, took part in one of our projects or programmes.
Reaching disadvantaged young people
During 2021/22 the highest proportion of our referrals were young carers, with almost 1/4 of participants falling under this category. This was closely followed by young people who receive free school meals – accounting for around 20% of our referrals. Most of the young people taking part had multiple vulnerability factors.
Not only does this highlight the level of deprivation within the areas we operate, it also shows how great the need is to offer programmes to these young people. In order to inspire them and motivate them to see a brighter future.
The Samaritans report that “There is now overwhelming evidence of a strong connection between socioeconomic deprivation and suicidal behaviour. Areas of higher socioeconomic disadvantage tend to have higher rates of suicide. The greater the level of deprivation experienced by an individual, the higher their risk of suicidal behaviour.”
Where free school meals is often a strong indication of deprivation, Young carers are also likely to be affected by poverty. It is often an indication that one or more parents are out of work, therefore household income is significantly impacted.
Preventing self-harm and suicide through The Gifted’s projects
Having seen first hand the links between deprivation and suicide, the priorities of our Butterfly Project are to:
- Prevent suicide overall. This involves working with students, education professionals, parents and the wider community.
- Raise awareness of self-harm and suicide among students and education professions. Drawing attention to the common warning signs. As well as highlighting various coping strategies and making onward referrals to key partners for more in-depth intervention.
- Encourage young people to talk about their feelings and mental health. Through assemblies, youth engagement, workshops, posters, literature, podcasts and promoting online resources.
- Target a particular group who are more at risk of sexual exploitation, self harming behaviour and suicide. Encouraging all educational professionals across the school to engage in student referral process.
How we are impacting lives of disadvantaged young people
After taking part in our signature programme, The Butterfly Project, the impact the project had was significant.
- 93% said that they felt more confident about their future.
- 86% said that they knew how they could achieve their goals.
A study conducted by Stephen B. Woolley, DSc, MPH, senior scientist at the Institute of Living at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut found that “Hopelessness significantly increased risk for suicidality in youth.” Suggesting that helping young people feel more confident about their future and helping them to set goals, will help to prevent suicidal thoughts.
80% of participants also said that after completing the programme they now had respect for themselves and for others, indicating improvements in their self-esteem. Using Gifted Star the percentage of young people reporting improvements in key areas was as follows: future 93%, engaging 72%, relationships 76%, resilience 70%, health 66%, support 74%, harm 69%, identity 67%.
“…the project is having a significant impact with the students with increased levels of engagement in class, dramatic decrease in exclusions and reduced out of school concerns.”
Teacher feedback
