Young Victims of Crime Helped by Commissioner Funding
20th August 2015
Services for young victims of crime in North Tyneside will be extended after a successful bid to Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner Vera Baird’s Supporting Victims Fund.
Someone Cares will receive over £17,500 from the fund set up by the Commissioner for local groups who give support to victims to help them cope and recover from their experience of crime.
The North Shields-based charity will use the money to extend the service they already offer to young people which sees them working within North Tyneside schools supporting young victims of crime, primarily those that are victims of abuse.
The funding will allow the organisation to see young people most in need by basing counsellors inside of school, which reduces the time the young person takes out of lessons as the counselling takes place on-site. Each counselling session will take place during different lessons each week to ensure there is minimal impact on the young person’s education. They will be offered eight counselling sessions after which their progress will be reviewed. If more sessions are needed, the charity will provide them.
Someone Cares offers counselling to people 11 years plus. Their Safer Futures @ Someone Cares project focuses on young people aged between 11 and 18. Those they help have experienced varying degrees of abuse from bullying and intimidation to sustained childhood sexual abuse.
Commissioner Baird said: “I know that Someone Cares aims to create a greater understanding of abuse and ensure no young victim goes unheard.
“With that in mind I was only too happy to give this worthwhile charity help from my Supporting Victims Fund.
“Often these young people don’t know where to turn but by having an organisation like this coming to them and offering help and support after school, so many more victims of abuse will be encouraged to come forward and will in turn get the vital help and support they need.
“Not only that, the service they receive will allow them to break free of their abuser and gain a sense of self-worth which will have been taken away from them.
“I wish the charity every success in extending their service and changing the lives of the young people it comes into contact with.”
Donna Lowden, chairman of Someone Cares, said: “Someone Cares have been supporting abuse victims and their families for over 25 years.
“Through this work we have found there is a need for counselling support for the regions young people.
“With the funding provided by Vera Baird’s supporting victims fund, we can move forward and provide the support needed for young victims. This will enable them to emerge from their struggles equipped and empowered to work towards a bright future.”
For more information on Someone Cares visit www.someonecares.org.uk
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