Based in the heart of Newport, the Isle of Wight Youth Trust has been offering counselling services, support and advice to children and young people aged up to 24 years old and their families/carers for nearly 30 years.
Each year the Trust opens its doors to over 700 individuals from all walks of life who find themselves in need of confidential, independent support for any number of reasons.
Director of the Youth Trust, Eileen Monks, explains that they never know who will walk through the door. “By far the biggest problem we help with is anxiety and depression. Those feelings could be as a result of issues at school or at home, they may be worried about job prospects, family problems, body image issues, and so on. As well as anxiety and depression though we also support those struggling to deal with many other problems from across the spectrum including bullying, sexual abuse, bereavement, self-harm and difficult family relationships. With the older age group, 18 – 24 years old, we also offer a service to help tackle drink and drug dependency, we guide them through the 12-Step Programme and can refer people to a rehabilitation centre on the mainland if needs be.”
The Youth Trust provides an invaluable short term counselling service which is completely confidential and provided by a professional team of counsellors. Clients may have been referred by specialists such as GPs or by parents, guardians or even by themselves. For those in need of support, having the opportunity to speak to someone that isn’t emotionally involved with their situation allows them to really open up. Counselling gives them the confidence to move on and the techniques needed to make changes. If any are in need of further help, they can be signposted to the right type of onward support as required.
Providing a consistent service is vital to the success of the work the Youth Trust does. As Eileen explains, “the young people who use our service need to know that they can rely on us and a big part of that is being able to provide consistency.” As with all charities today, raising sufficient funds to ensure that consistent support is an ever increasing challenge. The Youth Trust has recently appointed a Fundraiser, Aimee Steward, who works two and a half days each week to develop fundraising initiatives such as the recent ‘Bite the Wight’ campaign. Aimee is also working to build relationships with corporate groups and businesses across the Island. One of the biggest supporters of the Youth Trust is Bestival which, for the last 10 years, has supported the team to raise money across the Bestival and Camp Bestival sites. The Youth Trust is always looking for new supporters though, so if you or your company would like to find out more about working with the Isle of Wight Youth Trust, contact Aimee on aimee@iowyouthtrust.co.uk
Individuals can also donate by texting IWYT13 £5 to 70070. If you wish to donate more or less than £5 simply replace the ‘£5’ with the amount of your choice.
The Isle of Wight Youth Trust, 1 St John’s Place, Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 1LH
t: 01983 529569
