Jo Bowman, project manager of the social prescribing project at Chesterfield FC Community Trust, has explained what the programme covers and how it helps its participants.
Speaking exclusively to 1866 Sport, she said: “It’s a project that we started, they did a pilot last year and we had a one-year contract to do a little more around developing the project.
“From April this year through to March next year, we’ve got funding to support young people in Chesterfield, Bolsover and Hardwick areas.
“We help support people with low mood, people who might have mental health difficulties, they might be feeling isolated, they might have no friends, they might be struggling to get to school.”
In every programme put on at the Trust, there are several people that are integral into making the project a success.
Jo spoke about the importance of link workers in her team, saying: “Our link workers will work one-to-one with a young person between the ages of 11-18 or up to 25 if they have special educational needs.
“They will identify what matters to that young person and really build that relationship and mould what we do around what they need.
“So, it might be that a young person wants to learn how to catch a bus. It might be that they want to know how to go into a cafe and order a drink. They might want to learn how to do skateboarding or how to BMX.
“It’s about building those networks; it’s about working with local communities – not just what is based at the Trust but also further afield.”
The project is almost at the halfway point into its one-year contract and Jo spoke about the success of the social prescribing programme.
She said: “In the five months it has developed dramatically. The staff are all brilliant; I’m so proud of all of them. The feedback that we’ve been getting is phenomenal.
“We’ve got three full-time link workers, a part-time link worker and a part-time occupational therapist within the team. As well as myself as project manager.
“We’re really pleased that young people are working with us. We’ve had over 80 referrals so far, which is great for not even being half-way through the project.”
For more information please email: socialprescribing@spireitestrust.org.uk
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