Organizer: Willow Project.

Collaborating institution: Ramon Molinas Foudation.

Implementation schedule: 01/04/2013 – 31/03/2014.

Willow Young People’s Counselling Service, a project for the young people of Wigan

Ramon Molinas Foundation and Willow Project have joined forces in order to prolong the Willow Young People’s Counselling Service, a program intended to help the young people of Wigan –located in the northwest of the United Kingdom- who are at risk of social exclusion due to the family instability induced by alcoholism.

The program, composed by a team of nine professionals, will be implemented according to the needs of each of the participants. The aim of the entity is that the adolescents feel like at home. The number of sessions given is unlimited and these are reviewed every six weeks. The experience of Willow Project with the alcohol addiction problems has stipulated that the project should remain long-term, according to the needs and the evolution of each one of the beneficiaries.

Besides the personalized sessions, the project also has a therapeutic support group. The young people who take part in the program are introduced inside the group when the professionals of the entity consider it convenient. The group sessions, which are carried out once a week, promote the social skills of the young people enabling them to discover new ways of relating.

The benefits of the service

When the young people get involved in the process of personalized counselling and in the group sessions, their self-esteem and confidence increase. This fact enables them to improve their decision making, keeps them away from misconduct, and provides the necessary stimulus to integrate into the school environment, the local community, and the society in general.

In the past three years, the Willow Young People’s Counselling Service has assisted 250 young people from Wigan with great results. The evaluations from the entity certify that most of the young people have made great changes in their lives.

The beneficiaries of the service

The Willow Young People’s Counselling Service helps those young people aged between 11 and 19 who are affected by an unstable social environment, due to alcoholism. The profiles of the adolescents have some features in common, among them:

-They do not count on with an adequate family environment for their development. They live with fear and uncertainty.

-They have inappropriate responsibilities for their age. This involves, for example, that they have to cook for themselves, take care of other family members (younger siblings, grandparents…), or carry out house chores.

-They have been victims or witnesses of domestic violence, whether physical or emotional.

-They are adolescents at risk of social exclusion. They come from unstable families, with few aspirations, and where in many occasions, their members are unemployed.

-They manifest antisocial behaviour or have high possibilities of running it.

-They are prone to truancy and school failure.

Willow Project, an entity committed to the fight against alcoholism

Willow Project started in 1991 with the aim of protecting women affected directly or indirectly by alcoholism. The organization offered free, personal, and confidential counselling services, and therapies to overcome the damage the users suffered due to this situation. For 23 years, Willow Project has assisted an average of 350 women who require the aid of the professionals of the entity.

In 2009, the organization started the Willow Young People’s Counselling Service, the program supported by Ramon Molinas Foundation and dedicated to provide help to those young people affected by the family instability caused by this addiction.

A year later, in 2010, Willow Project started another line of help. It is a project to help parents with dependent children under 5 who as a consequence of alcoholism have their parental capacities diminished.

Lancashire, a county with a high rate of alcoholism

The county of Lancashire, where the city of Wigan is located, has a high rate of social inequality, aggravated by a high rate of alcoholism. The most significant data provided by research of the government of the United Kingdom is that the annual average of hospital care related with alcoholism in the area is of 9.300.

From the beginning of the 21^st century, the research carried out by the city council has alerted about an increase of the risk of alcoholism. Also, a report commissioned by the government revealed that ‘alcoholism provokes disturbances in the behaviour of young people who live in homes where one of the members abuses alcohol’. ‘This disturbance’, continued the report ‘is expressed by school difficulties or antisocial behaviour’.

Willow young people’s counselling service manages to perform 1,210 individual counselling sessions

The collaboration between Ramon Molinas Foundation and Willow Project has been a success. Throughout a year, the agreement between both entities has enabled to help 131 young people from Wigan through the performance of 1,210 individual counselling services.

The agreement between both entities has enabled to perpetuate the service, the Willow young people’s counselling service, which due to the restrictions of public funding was seeing its future in danger. According to the organizer entity, the service has been in high demand, to the point that the increase of the aid applications triggered the enlargement of the team of experienced consultants. A total of eight professionals have ensured the individualized attention of the beneficiaries of the program. In spite of the increase in staff, at the end of the performance there was a waiting list of 30 applicants who were requiring the support of Willow Project. The entity from Wigan committed to help them as soon as possible.

Once assisted, the 131 young people emphasized the importance of the service. After being probed by the entity, all the participants described their experiences as highly positive. The beneficiaries experimented significant changes at an emotional and behavioural level which enabled them to increase their self-esteem and their confidence, to improve their personal relationships, and to amend their academic performance. Besides, the agreement has meant the introduction of an improved service regarding the communication routes between the potential beneficiaries and the entity. Willow Project, through its web page, has created an application form where young people from Wigan can request the services of the entity anonymously and without restrictions of any kind.

Links of interest:

Willow Project website.