A Year from Now - Supporting Young mothers and vulnerable young women

Key programmes include:

• A Year from Now - workshop
• A Year From Now - 30 hour course

 Now - 30 hour course

This course was designed and developed with an audience of young mothers in mind.  It was developed after much discussion and research with a group of young women based at a homeless hostel in Great Yarmouth and with GFS Platform, the Young Women's Project. It was funded by Investing in Communities.

The women in particular wanted a course which included confidence building/self esteem, home safety and jobsearch skills.  The title came from discussion with the learners abot how they wanted to move forward with their lives.and  where they would want to be in a year's time.  The course ran over a fifteen week framework of three blocks of five weeks each half term.  It was portfolio based working towards the outcomes for Open College Network.  It was at entry three level and the three units for certification were:

1. Personal Development
2. Home Safety
3. Employment skills

 The topics covered were:

• Lifelines
• Gender communication
• Self Esteem and confidence building
• Changing Rooms
• Home Safety
• First Aid
• Fire Safety
• Jobsearch skills - CV, application forms and interview techniques

The teaching styles varied from group work, one:one, whole class and working in pairs.  This method suited the learners as they all had different learning styles.  Some work was set to finish at home as I felt the course should be transferable to their home life too. 

Outside visitors included the fire service, first aid trainers and Great Yarmouth College - Health and Social Care Department. These visits all formed part of their portfolio building activities.

Five out of the six young women had babies and two had their second whilst on the course but still managed to complete the course content and the portfolio of work. All but one of the young women moved into their own accommodation and four out of the six went into further training or employment.

 

A Year From Now workshops

Elements of this course have been transferred into a series of workshops which were delivered at St Paul's Lodge.  This was not certified within the OCN framework but a certificate of attendance was give out at the end of the workshops. 

The workshops covered:

• Lifelines
• Confidence and Self Esteem
• Learning through Play
• Job search skills within the Health and Social Care Industry
• Parents to Be

Parents to Be is a pilot programme working alongside Adult Education, Great Yarmouth College and GFS Platform.  The home safety and other sessions from A Year from now are being delivered over a series of eight weeks.  The young women are completing a portfolio of work in a series of handouts and discussion.  Most of the learners are pregnant or have new borns. It is seen as a springboard to perhaps starting further training or attending college/further education.

The topics covered are:

• Gender communication
• Learning through Play
• Changing Rooms
• Health and Safety around the home
• Story sacks and early reading skills
• Adult Education have funded first aid training and a computer course with certification.