CSJ Alliance News 17 November 2009


MENTAL HEALTH: CALL FOR EVIDENCE

The CSJ starts new policy work in the New Year, with the launch of a CSJ Working Group on Mental Health. As ever, we will want our policy ideas to come from grass roots organisations and CSJ Alliance partners.

If your organisation has evidence on the current state of care for those with mental health conditions or ideas for effective care, treatment and prevention, then please be in touch.

Email us your name, organisation and contact details and a paragraph on the sort of evidence or perspective you will share. The CSJ Mental Health Working Group will be in touch with you from January onwards.

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NICK HURD MP PRAISES CSJ ALLIANCE MEMBER THE LIVING WELL TRUST
Nick Hurd MP, Shadow Minister for Charities, Social Enterprise and Volunteering, spoke highly of the work of CSJ Alliance partner The Living Well Trust at an event in Canary Wharf on 12 November 2009.

The Living Well Trust has worked in the once notorious Raffles Estate in Carlisle. The group have been involved in transforming the estate and improving quality of life for countless residents since 1998.

The group, who won a CSJ Award in 2006, hosted Nick Hurd to a four day Inner City Challenge placement in July 2006. Speaking at the Community Links event "Chain Reaction", the Conservative MP described the 4-day placement as "the best thing I've done in the last four years as an MP."

www.livingwelltrust.org.uk

Picture: Nick Hurd MP with members of the Living Well Trust.

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POINT BLANK
Point Blank joined the CSJ Alliance this month. Established in 1994 by CEO Robert Cowan as a commercial recording studio, Point Blank now employs 22 full-time employees and over 100 freelance tutors. Their state-of-the-art college has won 'Best Music Production and DJ School' award six years in a row at the T-Scan Awards hosted by DJ Magazine.

Responding to the needs of young people who wanted to attend the college but could not afford the fees, Point Blank created a Community/Learning department that is now reaching thousands of young people and working with hundreds of organisations.

www.pointblanklearning.com

Picture: Music class at Point Blank

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THE SOURCE CAFE, ALDERSHOT
The Source Cafe joined the CSJ Alliance yesterday afternoon. The youth outreach cafe serves upto 800 young people a year, particularly those from broken families or the care system.

One female, teenage volunteer who helps run the cafe said, "This place is like family, the people you meet each week become really important to you."

The Source Cafe provide the only drug and alcohol-free evening 'hang out' in Aldershot for 16 - 25 year olds in a town with over 110 pubs and off-licenses. The Source also offer anger-management classes, teen parent mentoring and an after-schools club.

Chris Bullivant, CSJ Projects Director and Joseph Colman, CSJ Alliance Assistant, met with Source Cafe Director, Richard Cooper to find out more on 16 November 2009. The project is highly effective and remarkably simple. With running costs of only £300,000 per year, they are helping hundreds of young people with challenging backgrounds make positive life choices for just £375 per young person per year.

www.therealsource.co.uk

Picture: Richard Cooper, Director The Source and Chris Bullivant, Projects Director, talking to young people at The Source Cafe.

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CSJ TEAM MEMBER VOLUNTEERS AT BETEL, BIRMINGHAM FOR TWO DAYS
Paul Langlois, CSJ researcher, spent 12-13 November with CSJ Alliance member Betel in Birmingham, a rehabilitation and recovery centre for people with drug and alcohol addictions and the homeless.

Betel provide a long-term rehabilitative programme that breaks dependency on welfare benefits and substance abuse for people from chaotic or homeless backgrounds.

Paul, who is working on CSJ Addiction policy said, "Betel do brilliant work with those who have deeply entrenched addictions and who have often exhausted all other treatment options. I worked in the residential home, furniture recycling charity shop and helped the gardening team lay a woman's patio. There was a real sense of optimism that recovery can be achieved given time and the necessary support."

http://betelofbritain.wordpress.com/

Picture: Kent Martin, Director of Betel of Britain (left) with two other CSJ Alliance members at Breakthrough Birmingham in 2007.

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The Centre for Social Justice
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London, SW1P 1RL
t. 020 7340 9650

info@centreforsocialjustice.org.uk
www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk  

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