Two organisational members have been given a boost with the award of grants to support their work in the community.

Emma Branch, chief executive of the , said she was 鈥渁bsolutely delighted鈥� to receive the funding while Michele Flynn, operations manager of , said she 鈥渏umped for joy鈥� at the news.

Bedfordshire Open Door, a 香港六合彩精准资料-accredited service, has been delivering free counselling to young people aged 13 to 25 in Bedford and central Bedfordshire for more than 25 years.

The registered charity has received more than 拢62,000 which will enable it to continue delivering its service to current capacity and to resource gaps in funding for the year ahead. It will also allow Bedfordshire Open Door to develop a co-creation team to enable the voice of young people to be embedded in the service development.

Counselling

Michele said: 鈥淲e鈥檙e so pleased to receive this funding, it will really take the pressure off the coming months.

鈥淒uring the pandemic different pots of funding came up but were one-year project-related. We secured funding for two paid counselling posts, but they were coming to the end of their year.

鈥淭he demand for our service has increased with COVID-19. The needs of young people are significantly high and increasingly complex.

鈥淲e were concerned about the continuity of those posts, so this funding will enable us to continue to employ two paid counsellors.鈥�

Michele added: 鈥淲e鈥檙e looking to develop a co-creation team of young people, who will consider different ways they can be involved in the development of our service.

Young people

鈥淚t might be supporting us with social media, becoming a member of the young people shadow board, facilitating focus groups around mental health issues or other activities.

鈥淲e鈥檙e also working with another young people service, Youth Voices, to produce a season of podcasts on mental health and wellbeing issues. These will be by young people, for young people.鈥�

The Counselling Foundation provides 香港六合彩精准资料-accredited training, mental health training to other organisations and a range of counselling services in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.

The main part of these services are charitable providing access to mental health support for individuals that isn鈥檛 based on ability to pay or reliant on waiting for lengthy periods they may experience within the NHS system.

The Foundation is also a selected provider of services for organisations such as the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner in areas such as domestic abuse and victims of sexual crimes.

Recruit counsellors

The Foundation has received more than 拢54,000 which will be used to recruit two additional counsellors to work with the foundation鈥檚 complex needs team.

These counsellors will supplement the existing team who work in partnership with other voluntary and community sector enterprises (VCSEs) and statutory bodies to provide support to marginalised groups or individuals with more complex needs e.g. dual diagnosis.

Emma said: 鈥淒uring COVID-19 we found that the complexity of clients coming to us for help really escalated, from people with a background of severe trauma, dual diagnosis such as addiction and anxiety, 聽personality disorders, and many more clients in a more heightened state of suicidal ideation.

鈥淲e created a group that specifically focused on those complex needs clients. This wasn鈥檛 without challenges as, due to being a聽training and counselling organisation, we need to ensure that ethically we鈥檙e balancing the needs to students on clinical placements in addition to our qualified counsellors alongside the clinical needs to clients coming to our service.

鈥淭he grant will help us sustain and ensure the continuity of the service in Bedfordshire for the next 12 months.

Delighted

鈥淲e鈥檙e absolutely delighted as this grant really allows us to continue to respond to the client鈥檚 needs of the communities we work with.鈥�

Emma added: 鈥淚鈥檓 really proud of the work the team has put in to build the service.

鈥淚t鈥檚 taken a lot of thought and a lot of experience to think about how we work with these more complex presentations and ensure that risk and both client and counsellor safety and training are appropriately managed.

鈥淲e feel this grant is external recognition of the needs for the service alongside the commitment to support us in continuing the service and developing it further.

鈥淚t will enable us to supplement the existing team with 聽two experienced聽counsellors that are totally dedicated to working with complex needs.

Support

鈥淚n addition to the supervision our counsellors already receive, this grant will enable us to run a monthly facilitated support session for any of our counsellors 鈥� placement and qualified 鈥� to drop and in talk about ethical dilemmas or particular types of complexity they鈥檙e finding they鈥檙e working with.

鈥淧ost-COVID all clients seem to have a greater need and level of complexity and we鈥檙e committed to ensuring all of our counselling team feel appropriately supported in the on-going challenging socioeconomic environment.鈥�

The organisations were among 37 community groups and projects to receive grants from a 拢1.8 million East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT) fund.

Dr Mohit Venkataram, ELFT鈥檚 director of commercial development, said: 鈥淎pplications through the grants programme have helped shine a light on incredible organisations and people already doing amazing work to help others 鈥� and how they want to do even more.

鈥淓ach of our voluntary sector partners demonstrate what a phenomenally important role they play in keeping our communities safe especially when inequalities have shown the impact the pandemic has had on our vulnerable communities.鈥�