Improving Mental Health and Resilience Resources
Hastings Opportunity Area has worked in partnership with a number of organisations to deliver specialist training and support for schools and families to promote children’s mental health and emotional wellbeing.
Through this work, a range of online materials and resources were produced and are available to download here – see below.
Boingboing resilience CIC:
A series of mental health and emotional wellbeing training and resource booklets have been developed for schools, including resources for families, children and young people.
#Know Knives:
A guide to staying safe in East Sussex.
SWIFT:
A series of toolkits responding to concerns about sexual risk and harmful sexual behaviour.
Operation Encompass:
A toolkit to assist school staff supporting children and parents experiencing domestic abuse.
Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing Training and Support for Hastings Schools
The HOA funded ‘Boingboing Resilience CIC’, an organisation with expertise in supporting schools to develop their work to promote children’s mental health and emotional wellbeing. A series of mental health and emotional wellbeing training and resource booklets have been developed for schools. Including linked resources for use in the classroom and for families, children and young people.
Know Knives
From Sept 2015/17, 73 people between 16-19 were involved in knife-related crime [Police Crime figures] in East Sussex. #kNOwknives deliver workshops to schools, colleges, community organisations, parents and carers to educate young people about the risks of carrying a weapon. The HOA has funded #kNOwknives to operate in Hastings since 2018, with workshops delivered to every class in 3 out of 4 secondary schools in Hastings, along with roadshow style events in local Colleges and local youth provision.
Swift
The HOA funded SWIFT to offer support to schools to increase their knowledge and skills in responding to concerns about harmful sexual behaviour and its impact on their pupils. The support included a specialist sexual-risk lead training programme for schools, the issuing of a protocol which offers guidance on how to respond to incidents of harmful sexual behaviour and how to manage the risks, as well as offering workshops to improve communication between parents and their children about safe touch and healthy relationships. Download the toolkits using the links below:
Operation Encompass
Operation Encompass is an initiative that directly connects the police with schools to secure better outcomes for children who are subject or witness to police-attended incidents of domestic abuse. Rapid provision of support within the school environment means children are better safeguarded against the short, medium and long-term effects of domestic abuse.
Operation Encompass provides an efficient, confidential channel of communication between police forces and Key Adults (Designated Safeguarding Leads), within schools. This enables the immediate and discreet recognition of the child’s situation, ensuring a secure and sympathetic environment is provided and the broader effects of abuse are addressed. Operation Encompass aims to mitigate harm caused through domestic abuse by enabling immediate support, making a child’s day better and giving them a better tomorrow. The HOA has supported Operation Encompass in Hastings and St Leonards by providing additional funding to support schools’ response to children involved.
SWIFT have produced a School’s Domestic Abuse Toolkit which will assist teaching staff to support children and parents experiencing domestic abuse. The toolkit was developed in response to the implementation of Operation Encompass within East Sussex and in recognition of the need to provide more resources for school in relation to Domestic Abuse.
