The Rock Youth Project The Rock Youth Project is a youth club which welcomes over 50 young people aged 7 to 19 each night. It provides quality, locally accessible youthwork across two sites, to young people from some of Carlisle’s more disadvantaged areas, offering a safe place, fun activities and someone to talk to. Young people from Currock, Upperby and Harraby access The Rock’s six different weekly youth clubs and activities. The project also supports families by providing a free laundry, a cybercafe and support to access benefits. Hannah Gill, The Rock’s Project Manager explained more about their work. “The Rock Youth Project has served as a vital resource in the local community for 18 years, offering a safe space, providing somewhere to go and providing free hot meals daily. We offer a diverse range of activities driven by a youth work curriculum that is developed by our members, including arts and crafts, cooking, sports, games, and essential life skills. We encourage social action initiatives that are created by our members and empower young individuals to create positive changes in their community. The Rock youth workers are committed to providing a listening ear and being a supportive presence for both children and young individuals.” There is a strong sense of community in the areas that The Rock works in, where people look out for each other. However, these areas can feel quite isolated from the rest of Carlisle, often due to the prohibitive cost of travelling to other areas. It’s very important to The Rock that cost is not a barrier to access for young people, so it offers all its activities free of charge. Those running the project highlighted the following issues of concern for the young people it supports: • The effects of Covid-19 and how young people are able to interact with each other • Young people not attending school • County lines / drugs and how young people are getting drawn into gangs • The cost-of-living crisis and worsening holiday hunger • Antisocial behaviour. Hannah Gill added: CASE STUDY The Rock Youth Project is dedicated to creating a safer environment and inspiring young people to believe that anything is achievable. We engage with young people in their communities, address challenges, and offer opportunities for them to acquire new skills, explore their interests, and gain selfawareness. Our mission is to empower them to express themselves and enjoy their youth. In a world where children grow up quickly due to technology, we prioritize allowing them to simply be kids. The Rock is committed to supporting all children, young people, and families in the community. PAC Therapy – Children and family support service Promoting Autonomy and Change (known as PAC Therapy) is a registered charity based in Carlisle, providing free counselling and therapy for children and young people who are affected by mental health, emotional and/ or interpersonal issues. PAC offers talking and non-verbal sessions through psychotherapeutic counselling, art psychotherapy and music therapy. The charity’s main source of funding is its contract with the local council which supports young people from Carlisle aged 13 to 19 from specific referral routes. PAC relies on funding from charitable sources to help those not covered by the contract including children aged 12 and under from the wider Carlisle district who don’t qualify for statutory funding or who can’t access the local CAMHS service. Charitable funding supports the work of PAC’s team of therapists which includes Art, Music & Talking Therapists who are all professionally qualified and accredited. A spokesperson for PAC said: “Such creative therapeutic services are rare in Cumbria as the training bodies are all quite far away, but these can be attractive therapy options for children and young people, with proven positive outcomes." “One young person who is attending 1:1 music therapy at PAC will not leave the house to attend school or to go anywhere. Coming to his session at PAC is the only thing he is currently able to do." CASE STUDY We have many young people like this who are complex and quite difficult to engage, but as the creative therapies are less intrusive and less reliant on being able to talk about feelings, they are particularly suitable to young people. PAC Therapy offers free counselling and therapy to children and young people in Carlisle Carlisle: Opportunities & Challenges 2025 18 19
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