OUR STRATEGIC VISION

We will strengthen our counselling services in our current service delivery areas, ensuring that young people can access counselling support in a way that suits their needs and not only through their schools.

We will do this by:

• Promoting the use of community settings and online counselling as an alternative to being seen on school grounds
• Publishing marketing for our services in locations outside of school
• Working closely with community groups to encourage young people to reach out to our counselling service
• Continuing to let young people who use our safe spaces know that they can access counselling at Depot or online with Area 43

We will strengthen and establish partnerships that encourage true cross-sector collaboration and coproduction in order to strengthen services for young people.

We will do this by:

• Identifying those whose mission, vision and values align with our own
• Continue to insist that all partnerships agree to a youth-determined pledge, displaying their commitment to youth-led, meaningful partnerships

We will work with S3 and the wider young population to build 3 a network of safe spaces across Ceredigion.

We will do this by:

• Strengthening our current provision of safe spaces in Cardigan (Depot) and Feelz on Wheelz (Ceredigion-wide), and nurturing our reflective staff ethos so that we continue to learn and develop
• Identifying new, youth-led partnerships that can design and deliver new safe spaces in co-production with young people, in other areas of the county
• Facilitating S3’s Safe Space and Safe Service Endorsement awards, so that other organisations can strengthen their existing safe spaces/services as per the recommendations and requirements set by young people
• Encourage cross-sector collaboration and communication through promotion of our services at the Public Service Board and local steering groups

We will empower and amplify youth voice to make change.

We will do this by:

• Developing campaign work to highlight the issues impacting young people as defined by them
• Using our new toolkits to influence others
• Providing opportunities for young people to educate others
• Providing opportunities for young people to learn about issues that matter to them
• Providing young people with safe spaces to speak, meet likeminded people and collaborate with each other to make change
• Using our platform to elevate their voices and give them the opportunity to speak to those in power

We will use our knowledge and expertise to influence systemic change.

We will do this by:

• Growing a consultancy and management service
• Creating toolkits that can be shared with others:
  Toolkit: Youth-led
  Toolkit: Safe Spaces
  Toolkit: Partnership Working

That will:

• Use a creative, impactful and visual evidence base which demonstrates the real difference our services make to the young people we support
• Use qualitative and quantitative information that young people can use when designing, shaping, delivering and lobbying for services
• Be open and honest about our hurdles and successes
• Share our experience of management, development, governance, policy and process

We will establish a training service that will educate others on meaningful youthled provision, quality support in safe spaces, service development and the benefits of change in service delivery.

We will do this by:

• Building a network of organisations who share the same ethos and vision as Area 43 and identifying
  those who may need further training
• Promoting our services and expertise through public forums and media
• Reaching out to other organisations, including grassroots, who need assistance in building an effective support team and running a safe and successful safe space, based on our model
• Empowering our staff to be the best support workers they can be, so that they are confident to the level of
  being able to share their knowledge with others
• Using our toolkit to educate others
• Building on our support worker handbook, which will inform the basis of all our training and can be rolled
  out to all youth support workers on a national scale