Through our community work, Lisa met Hannah and her mum in September 2018. Hannah had been removed from mainstream school in the May by mum due to mum’s anxiety over bullying. Since that time mum was becoming more concerned and adding a lot of her mental health issues on to Hannah. Hannah was becoming more and more lacking in self esteem and struggling with isolation. Mum was suggesting she was autistic, suffering with anxiety and had an eating disorder.

Lisa arranged with mum to take Hannah out for 1-to-1 sessions where she could choose what they did, and try to overcome any challenges she faced. They went out for hot chocolates to tackle busy places; bike rides; they tackled the bus and the city centre.

Through encouragement and listening to Hannah they discovered she didn’t suffer with anxiety. She had healthy nerves when talking to the bus driver and most importantly she really wanted to go back to school. She wanted a uniform, she wanted a purpose every day and she wanted to be around people and make friends again.

Lisa was able to advocate for Hannah and communicate with mum which posed its own challenges due to her anxiety and personality disorder. Lisa liaised with a new school and helped mum to fill out the school admissions form. ‘Hannah is now back in full-time education and flourishing in her new school. She is settled, has made friends and is enjoying learning again.

She said she was pleased to have Lisa as an adult that she can trust, and she feels supported.
At home she has to tread carefully with all of mum’s challenges but with Lisa she felt comfortable and able to relax and be open and engaged.

The organisation was approached to work with Peter in December 2017 as he had disengaged from mainstream education and was struggling with his confidence and self-esteem. Peter is a particularly complex young man as he had a traumatic early years that saw him adopted by the family he now lives with when he was 18 months. The trauma has caused many complexities for Peter and his development has been severely affected by this time. He is on the autistic spectrum; he suffers social anxiety; he has auditory sensory issues; he lives in a state of high stress and predominantly finds himself in a flight, fight or freeze mode. His mental health was poor as a result of all this.

His school and mum approached The Pioneers Project to work 1-to-1 and provide opportunities for Peter to grow his confidence and self-esteem and help him to build trust with an adult outside of the immediate family so he could then engage in more specialist services.

Jeff began working with Peter in April 2018 after ensuring everything was in place to be able to effectively engage with him. Peter’s bar was set low by himself and his target for the first 10 weeks was to meet in a public place. Not only did he achieve this on multiple occasions, he also tackled his fear of bus journeys and venturing into the city centre. He spent time at the Energy from Waste plant, learning about their systems and having a go at controlling complex machinery; he enjoyed time quad biking; and he became a bird keeper at a bird of prey centre. Since then we have continued to meet in public places such as McDonalds and the Barbican and we have visited post-16 education providers to look at his options from September 2019. He continues to engage regularly and is positive about his time with us.

When asked what difference his engagement had made, he offered: “Jeff has helped me get out and do things I wouldn’t normally do.”

His mum said the following: “The Pioneers Project has given my son the confidence to get back out into social settings, to try new skills, reintroduce old skills. It is very much person centred and Jeff has taken time to build up a rapport and relationship with Peter, which can then help gently and slowly move him forward and out of his comfort zone, but with support. The focus is on being individual and maybe looking at things differently is a positive thing rather than being a problem. I would happily recommend this service.”

Peter’s engagement with our service has enabled such a positive change in him. He is now engaged with CAMHS and regularly attends these sessions whereas previously he would avoid it; and he is actively exploring his options for post-16 education despite his insistence that he didn’t want to get any qualifications or worry about school.