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The Contact Project is a doorstep community Project that supports Children and young people aged 5-25, who predominantly live on the St Matthews Estate, recognised as being one of the most socially and economically deprived areas of the city, and amongst the top 5% of most deprived estates in the country. Present services are expanding in order to accommodate these developing needs.
The Project is based within St Matthews House in the heart of the community. The staff and volunteers at the project deliver services to around one hundred children and young people and their families working Monday to Friday from 9.00am – 8.00pm and dealing with all aspects of social inclusion and promoting a positive, safe, healthy and happy community within the local area.
The project aims to encompass all areas of social inclusion and in particular focuses on the five Every Child Matters Outcomes.
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- Being Healthy
- Staying Safe
- Enjoy and Achieve
- Making a Positive Contribution
- Economic Well Being
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The Project focuses on providing children and young people with a unique level of support in times of need, assessing each individuals needs and creating a plan that aims to build upon the self esteem and personal development of the children and young people, whom are then able to gain greater understanding of their own abilities and strengths. The project uses such strategies such as Solution Focused Approach, Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Life Coaching.
Excellent partnership arrangements with other specialised organisations in the field have been developed enabling project mentors to refer children and young people who are able to work more specifically around certain identified issues.
The Project mentors work with individuals to identify impacting issues and develop programs that address these through small group work sessions, examples of these are;
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- Anti social behaviour
- Gun/Knife and Violent Crime
- Health and Obesity
- Re engaging young people within the NEET group
- Young Parents Groups
- Family Support
- Community Cohesion
- Improving Educational Attainment and Achievement
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Currently the project is striving forwards with new initiatives that are of current national concern such as the Strengthening Families Strengthening Communities program alongside Healthy Living Healthy Lifestyle initiatives.
The Contact Project is in its tenth year of establishment and is able to demonstrate success in terms of participation and engagement with the community.
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