Young People

We spoke with Kiera, one of our SW!TCH Youth Development Workers, about the ongoing support she's been delivering to Rose, a young person dealing with multiple and complex needs who had been admitted to a local mental health unit.

On a quiet street in Barking, shortly before 3:45PM on Friday 12th March 2021, a 16-year-old male student was stabbed and seriously injured. As a result of the incident, he sustained life-changing injuries.

Part of our wider SW!TCH initiative, SW!TCH Minds works to improve the mental health of young people through a carefully-designed programme built around weekly one-to-one mentoring sessions supported by a range of extra-curricular positive activities and opportunities to engage with the local community.

As part of our Young people are so important!

Names have been changed to protect those involved. Samuel first came to us by a referral from a Local Authority Community Safety Team. He had been involved in numerous incidents in the borough and had built quite a reputation for fighting and violent outbursts. Around the same time, we received a referral for Joshua, another young person in the same...

Why should employers care about mental health? The World Health Organisation defines mental health as "A state of wellbeing in which every individual realises their potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and make a  contribution to their community." Work contributes a great deal in our mental health and wellbeing. The Royal College of Psychiatrists...

We were two youth workers who were sent into a small estate in East London for four sessions a week, over the course of a year. At one stage, the police refused to patrol the streets–and we were supposed to try and build community there! But what we found were willing residents and young people who wanted something different. Often...

Lifeline's youth work team–collectively known as