The Place2Be

Changing Lives

If adults are finding modern urban life challenging and confrontational, what must it be like for young people immersed in a culture where value is ascribed to price, and worth is judged by what things cost? The Office of National Statistics says that 10% of five-to-15-year-olds have a diagnosed mental-health problem, while 80% of children who show behavioural problems at five go on to develop more anti-social behaviour. Over 90% of young offenders have had a mental-health problem as a child. "I'm not one of those mothers in denial who don't believe that the children are causing trouble. I am a very strict parent, and I could not understand what was going on with my son. From my point of view, I did realise that Yemi was taking too much responsibility at home, and so I changed my working hours, but I knew there was something more serious at the bottom of it. He was trying to tell me that something was wrong, but I didn't know how to hear him, and so we took advice from experts," she says.

It was miraculous," says Zaria-Suleiman."I'm conscious that I am making this sound very dramatic. But that is because it was! He literally changed overnight,and in the course of the one-year programme, there were changes that I think will last a lifetime," she says. Yemi strolls in, shakes hands and waits politely to say his piece. "Now,I know how to stick up for myself, how to handle things. I never get angry any more, I just walk away and play football. And if people are fighting, I walk away. They might have a knife, you know? Yeah, Place2Be changed my life. Anger is pointless," he says quietly, with a soft gaze like a 13-year-old Buddha. For parents like Zaria-Suleiman, The Place2Be has been a lifeline, and says without exaggeration, and a great deal of gratitude. "It gave me my son back. What price can you put on that? Money cannot qualify what I have back. This thing needs more funds, it's a good investment. Every child that goes to Place2Be and gets the counselling they need is one less gangster, drug user, whatever, on the street."

Charities

Our current charities include:

PEF Contribution

PEF is helping The Place2Be to grow in order to support an additional 7,000 children in North-West England.
PEF is also helping them appoint a Head of Fundraising to enable further growth and ensure sustainability.

Introducing the Charity

The Place2Be is uniquely placed to provide the emotional support needed to nurture troubled children and give them the means to move past their problems and build foundations for a successful life. The charity works in 120 schools providing one-to-one and group counselling sessions supporting 40,000 children plus a lunchtime drop-in service inside schools as well as supporting parents and teachers through dedicated counselling and training services. Their intervention also helps remove barriers to learning, with schools witnessing a rise in the attendance records of children and a fall in the number of exclusions made.

The Place2Be helps children’s confidence, self-esteem and coping skills with 70% of those children helped showing improvements in their behavioural and social skills and 9 out of 10 parents report improved well-being and increased confidence.

The Place2Be helps children who have worries on their mind and who can't take on learning, or form healthy relationships, who come to school and sometimes display angry behaviour, or withdrawn children who have experienced a breakdown in the family life, or bereavement. Sometimes they come from homes where their parents might experience drug and alcohol addictions, they might be getting bullied.

With the funding from PEF they are working towards their 10-year strategy to support 150,000 children a year in 250 schools by 1017.