In December 2020, a grant was awarded from the David Doig Foundation to LinkLiving, a person-centered health, wellbeing, and social care charity working in East Central Scotland. With expertise in trauma support, they aim to support young people to develop resilience to overcome the negative impacts of trauma, poor mental health, inequality, isolation and disadvantage. They do this through a range of programmes including employability programmes, self-help coaching, personal skills development, care at home and housing support, supported accommodation, befriending, and social cafes. Their work is based on core values of empathy, respect, integrity, and caring.
This grant was awarded to allow LinkLiving to deliver their Steps to Resilience programme. The Steps to Resilience programme worked with 17 young people aged 14-16 who had experienced trauma and severe disadvantage. Over a three-month period, these young people were supported to develop practical skills to manage their mental health and develop coping strategies. Young people taking part were from West Fife and not currently attending school.
Empowering young people to build on resilience and coping strategies gained through adverse experience and turning them into positive tools for self-help enabled these young people to move into positive destinations for education, training, work, or volunteering.
The biggest increases on the face to face programme were in confidence, hope for the future, and knowing where to seek support. Young people also reported increased ability to deal with problems and bounce back from challenges. In terms of other outcomes, all of the young people either engaged back with school, were referred to Skills Development Scotland, or accepted into college.
