My Future Matters Ltd

During early years in life we develop an internal working model via our attachment experiences which shapes the way we view ourselves and others around us. When children experience adverse experiences via trauma, abuse, neglect, parental domestic violence, mental health, substance abuse, loss and separation, can impact the way we feel a sense of safety and how we form relationships (The Attachment Research Community, 2021). During these periods of stressful events and or prolong periods of adverse experiences, impacts the way our brains function and develop. When a young person or adult perceives threat, they revert to the primitive area of their brain, called the brain stem, which essentially detaches/prevents other areas of the brain functioning, as its prime function is survival mode when it preserves threats. The response’s during times of stress or when  triggered due to past (ACES) Adverse Childhood Experiences, will respond in behaviours of fight, flight and freeze mode (Lyons, 2019). During these times we have a responsibility and opportunities for growth to be able to support young people during these time’s with safe, positive coping strategies, so they can be back in their window of tolerance, and are able to feel safe. The purpose of this is so they are able to access more executive functions areas of their brain, to learn via these safe recovery experiences, which can enable them to develop, learn and increase their window of tolerance, which can improve their emotional well-being and improved responses to triggers in the future (Lyons, 2019). Therefore, with this awareness we have insured that the environment we offer young people is safe, consistent, with well trained mentor's to have an understanding of these key principles in attachment and trauma understanding/approach, so we can understand young peoples lived experiences and how they may respond to stressors, so they can act mindfully to support young people using a trauma recovery model approach (Informing Futures, 2021). Therefore, our work with young people can be intensive, working jointly to create trauma informed individual ‘case formulations’ (plans). The young person is key in creating realistic person centred plans to be achievable, while giving them the space and support to create a psycho-educational toolkit, to help young people to develop healthy strategies to regulate, relate and respond/cope/recover while in survival mode.  

The trauma recovery model's premise is that the whole team around the young person has to be working together with a shared understanding and approach to help create stability, consistency, and create opportunities for the young person to feel safe, regulated and out longer periods of their time out of their brain stem/fight, fight, freeze mode (Informed Futures, 2021). Therefore, it is crucial while working with young people we are able to establish this joint working early on for when the young person attends the home, via a case formulation to help the young person to feel secure, start from the bottom up to enable the young person to develop crucial independent living skills, when they are able to use the executive areas of their brain (Lyons, 2019). Trauma therapist along with neuroscientist believe that during a young persons development, as they have experienced periods of time in their brain stem, that areas of development have been impacted, and to be able to enable areas of crucial skills to develop for example emotional regulation, that they need to be repaired from ‘the bottom up’, not only then will the young person will be able to repair the areas of functioning impaired due to their trauma (Lyons, 2019). My Future Matters Ltd is guided by Trauma research and keep up to date with the latest practitioner training available to be able to undertake this essential work to enable us to build on practical and internal independent life skills. We follow the recovery model  which we are guided by in our work and pace with the young person to achieve good outcomes (Informed Futures, 2021). An area which is a focus of development is training our mentors in skills in mentalisation, as this gives our mentor's the understanding and skills to support young people to self-actualise and analyse and reflect experiences/events, and unpick in their words/voice how they have impacted them, how they felt, why they feel they felt that way, and how do they feel about this, so being curious  so mentalise what they would do moving forward (France, 2018). It is key giving young people the safe space with trusted adults to reflect, mentalise, to process experiences and through this, they will be able to manage and build skills within these areas to be able to process stressors/events in the future, developing further their executive functioning area of their brain with better awareness of themselves (France, 2018). This is key for consequential thinking and understanding the world around them and how they may respond to it.

The British Association for Social Work (2021) highlights the importance for practitioners to prioritise building a trusted open and consistent relationship with young people and their families to achieve the most affective change, for positive outcomes. This practice has seen an improvement in developing better working relationships in some Children Social Care services (BASW, 2021) and can be seen to create periods of desistance in offending behaviours (Youth Justice Board, 2021). Therefore, it is key in our practice to form relationships with the young people we support as a priority, before progressing onto development of their life skills, as this is key for engagement to access support via their mentors, and be able to be open regarding difficulties in areas they may have, and feel safe to share and create plans to develop their skills. This practice can work alongside the trauma recovery model and Maslow’s theory (Hierarchy of needs) to create trusted relationships to be able to develop a sense of safety, to be able to achieve the most effective plans and for best outcomes. When a young person has developed a safe trusted relationship, they are more regulated and feel safer to go a little further outside their window of tolerance to explore new experiences and life skills, as they feel safe and trust in the relationships with the mentor to offer a place of safety, trust and feel no judgement, to help them grow and overcome new challenges. This can help also to promote, develop and grow where there is a reduction in vulnerabilities and risk and consequently improved outcomes (BASW, 2021). It is important for adults/our mentors to role model positive healthy trusted relationships, as this can provide vital learning experiences of a better perception of what positive and negative relationships qualities look like, which could aid within their future when developing adult personal relationships (Lyons, 2019).

The support we provide is based upon the recognition that young people require safety, space, clear expectations, opportunities for growth, time to reflect and to be encouraged, empowered and supported to be involved in the decision-making process that affects their lives. We know and acknowledge that young people also need opportunities to develop and experience positive relationships with trusted adults. This requires the support and guidance of positive role models, as well as a structured environment and the opportunity for new experiences which My Future Matters Ltd are able to provide. Our 24/7 supported semi-independent homes are for young people aged between 16-18 years of age, giving a safe welcoming space to all diverse sexual orientations, all genders identities and can support a diverse range of complex needs with a bespoke package from low, enhanced to intensive. We have experience with supporting young people on the Autistic Spectrum, ADHD, Complex Developmental Trauma/PTSD, self-harm, learning difficulties, speech or social communication difficulties, Offending behaviour, at risk of Child Criminal or Sexual Exploitation, Diabetes, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, and we are able to be adaptive to create spaces and support for other physical, mental, risk, learning or sensory needs. Please discuss any specific requirements, risks and needs during the referral process so we can create a bespoke package to ensure we meet the needs of the young person, so they can achieved within our homes. We try to go the extra mile to ensure a young person feels supported, valued, comfortable, so please discuss any additional support during the moving process to help with at times, difficulties or anxieties within this transition period. All referrals are welcomed from LA/councils; we are able to provide 5 bedroom accommodation for young people from short to longer term to enable them to gain the level of support/intervention needed to support them to develop their skills in independence before they transition to adult services. 

My Future Matters Ltd believe in not only investing our time and resources with the young people, we also are committed to our staff development who have been through an extensive interview and screening process and share the same core values and goals for our service. We pride ourselves of being a trauma informed service therefore we invest in good quality training via a trauma therapeutic service. This enables our staff to have a good understanding of each young person's individual needs, explored via case formulations and good guidance of approaches to enable them to reason, relate, regulate, recover and achieve with the young person they work with. We encourage regular multi-agency core group meetings to create joint up plans via a trauma informed case formulation, to have a share understanding, and realistic goals/plan to help the young person feel safe, gain stability so they are able to achieve, which is key for a young person to develop. This is particularly relevant if they have experienced many adverse childhood experiences, which unfortunately children that have care experience usually have this disadvantaged background. Consequently, this impacts their emotional development, which could impact many areas within their life for example being safe, ability to regulated and form trusted safe relationships, so great awareness of this can help our mentors support young people. We also provide regular good quality training in safeguarding that will help staff to be most effective with the young people who may have diverse needs in our homes. We are investing in promoting trauma informed practice and hope to help our staff progress their skills and confidence to help the wider networks also, so the young people have a effective working team around them. Staff development is important to My Future Matters Ltd and will do our best to support our mentors to explore and support training opportunities so they can also achieve their full potential. 

Exciting news!! We are currently looking for two new homes, all working within this age range of 16-18 years, using the key trauma informed approached, but specializing in working with young people at risk or who are experiencing child sexual exploitation and child criminal exploitation and unaccompanied asylum seeking children and young people. Unfortunately, there are high statistic of young people being exploited and we believe targeted specialized homes that have the training and focus/resources to support the young people, to create a place of safety, away from exploiters, is crucial in breaking the cycle. These homes could enable young people to have time, support and space be able to repair, engage in tailored programs, and be able to develop and achieve to improve future outcomes for these vulnerable young people. Please continue to visit our website as we will be providing regular updates.