Directors Articles
Since putting on the cities first ever open air concerts in Bedminster skakeboard park nearly 20 years ago and subsequently staging major youth development events in both Kingswood & Eastville park attracting a combined 50,000 people, Our founding Director Patrick Hart has forged a succesful musical career as well as forming the "philanthropic" organisation Elevation who were pioneers of much of the current care styles that are used today. His philosophy of mutual respect (Give respect , Get respect) was enshrined in the first ever Elevation statement of purpose nearly ten years ago. he is still a regular speaker at conferences accross Europe and is also a respected broadcaster. Here are some of his articles.
The Elevation Style...It Works! (June 2006)
In the early days our approach ruffled a few feathers...I make no apologies for the Elevation style...It works !
Being responsible for ' future planning' it has been my remit to look at the areas of work where Elevation can best develop and utilise its strengths. Our success to date, has been due to the superb achievements of our staff team, but also undoubtedly due to the building of very good working relationships with the Social Service teams in the areas that we work. It would be fair to say that in the early days of Elevation, our direct approach whilst successful with our young clients, ruffled more than a few feathers in various departments of Social Services, where our confidence was sometimes mistaken for arrogance, and our style regarded as maybe too cavalier. We were undoubtedly viewed with a degree of suspicion.
It is often true that anything that is attractive to young people, (and
Elevation certainly was and is) will be greeted with a degree of suspicion, particularly by adults. There were those who looked at our staff, some of them very young, dressed not unlike many of the young people with whom they worked and driving 'flashy' cars, and upon that they made their judgments. Certainly some people saw us, as like a fashion...HERE TODAY GONE TOMORROW! However I make no apologies for the Elevation Style, for after all STYLE is not just about what you wear, but how you wear it and not just about what you say , but how you say it, and that is important to young people.
Without doubt any young person that has been with Elevation leaves us more confident in themselves and their abilities than when they arrived. I am pleased to say that our success in the last few years has convinced those that we work with in Social Services that our style has substance and that we can in various ways provide valuable support to Social Services. In fact, it is in providing SUPPORT SERVICES to local authorities that I see the future development of Elevation in the childcare field.
Take a look at the following services that we can offer NOW, within a 30 mile radius of Bristol...
1) 24 hour Family and Foster Care Support
We can offer immediate response to a family or fostering breakdown. We can send 2 people (1 for the carer and 1 of our street team/mentors for the young person) and diffuse situations quickly reducing the strain on EDT and the police. (Our staff can also attend police stations as appropriate
adults.)
2) After-care Support
We can provide After Care support packages that can include out-of-hours back-up.
3) We provide tailor-made training courses for young people, (ie, DJ'ing , Radio production and Media skills).
To date we have worked with Schools, Youth groups, Community groups and Youth Offending Teams.
4) Young Offenders
We can provide support packages for young offenders before, during and after release from YOI's and Secure Units including the above mentioned Training courses. Of course some of you might say that for most Social Service departments already struggling to balance the books , these services whilst welcome would only add to your burden. However, I would suggest that if you look at the wider perspective they could actually reduce your budget spending in significant ways...
- With greater family support preventing more young people from coming into care (just preventing one child from becoming Looked After from the age of 13 would make it immediately cost effective).
By offering foster carers better support, you reduce the amount of carers leaving and thereby the number of replacement carers you need to recruit and train.
You reduce the burden on your social workers (less family break-ups, less fostering breakdowns, less police and court involvement and more opportunity for positive involvement with their clients) By reducing their workload you reduce the potential for stress-related illness. Less sick days, less resignations and less stress induced mistakes.- Less re-offending by young people given more opportunities.
- More effective use of EDT
- In conclusion, I hope that this has given you a better understanding of whatElevation has to offer, and look forward in the next Elevation Group Update to bringing you news of an exciting new Elevation initiative which will be of great benefit to both Social Workers and Looked After Children.