Cocoon report Winter 2022

SEPT - DEC REPORT

2022

The Cocoon is utilised well by Havering care experienced young people, particularly those aged 18-25. Following the lockdown during the pandemic, the Cocoon is now open six days a week to care experienced young adults and young people from 15 years upwards. We continue to have ongoing visits from some of our older care experienced young adults, over the age of 25yrs, who tell us the Cocoon and staff are an extension of their support network. Over the last couple of months, we have run a number of life skills days at the Cocoon including:

Havering Works

The Leaving Care team has partnered with Havering Works to offer free employment support to Care Leavers who are currently NEET. They run drop-in sessions and 1-1 meetings with young people at the Cocoon and offer advice on CVs, job searches and exploring how to overcome barriers to employment.

Mental Health Nurse

A worker from NELFT is available every Thursday in the Cocoon and young people can access support in the form of a chat, referral or brief assessment to support them. The young people who have met with the NELFT worker have given good feedback about being able to talk to someone in a safe space. The benefits of having a mental health nurse on site is twofold in that Leaving Care staff are building resilience and confidence in supporting care experienced young people with hidden disabilities.

Substances Misuse Worker from Wise Up

This worker attends the Cocoon every Wednesday, and has built positive relationships with a number of care leavers. Young people, are able to talk and undertake pieces of work that support their self-esteem, and highlights some of the reasons behind their substance use. Staff, again are benefitting as these sessions help them with the different skills required to support young adults who misuse substances.

Meet the Systemic Practitioner

Natalie Richardson, Family Therapist and Systemic Practitioner within the Leaving Care Team, attends the Cocoon every Friday. She undertakes joint work with staff, and offers confidential space for care experienced young adults to discuss their thoughts, feelings and experiences.

DWP Support

Whilst the DWP are not yet back to supporting care leavers in the Cocoon, staff in the Cocoon support young people to communicate with DWP in order to resolve benefits related matters.

Home Office Interviews

The Cocoon has been used by unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC) to offer a safe space for online Home Office interviews. Staff will sit in the interviews with the young adults and act as advocates or provide any additional support as required. This arrangement offers a more informal setting, with support from staff who are familiar with the young adults and their circumstances.

Be part of the Youth Management Team

Opportunity for care leavers to contribute to how Havering Leaving Care Team responds to their needs and help plan positive engagement activities. However, every single contact within the Cocoon is used as an opportunity to obtain feedback about service provision or any areas that could be improved upon.

Cocoon Activities

During their time in the Cocoon young people have the opportunity to work on independent living skills like cooking and learning new skills such as:

cooking & eating together (pasta bake, chicken, jollof rice) making milkshakes and other drinks (non-alcoholic) supporting staff complete food shops for the Cocoon using the DJ equipment – quite popular with young adults going through crisis playing board games & video games, which builds on social skills

Cocoon Attendance

The Cocoon has been described as a “lifeline,” “home from home” and “safe space” by care leavers. Young adults from diverse backgrounds use the Cocoon on a day to day basis, and benefit from one to one support given by the staff.

Three members of staff work from the Cocoon on a regular basis and are well known to all the care leavers. The Head of service and Group Manager visit the Cocoon weekly and have an opportunity to meet with care leavers, address any queries and respond to any requests. Feedback is that this is really working well, and young people like to see senior managers from time to time.

Below is a graph and table outlining the Cocoon weekly attendance from 28th August to last week in December:

Weekly Wellbeing

As part of promoting a healthy mind and positive interaction for young people aged 16-25, we have football sessions every Tuesday at Powerleague with coach Mark.

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Professionals Linked to supporting wellbeing at the cocoon:

Every Wednesday we have the substance misuse worker between 1-2 pm.

We have linked with the Mental Health Nurse (Nneamaka Ozochinze) who attends the cocoon every Thursday between 10-1 pm.

The systemic practitioner attends every Friday in the afternoon.

Recent Events at the Cocoon

Kinky Boots Theatre Trip - 13th October

A group of young people went to The Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch to watch Kinky Boots the Musical. Everyone had a great time, they gave the actors a standing ovation and danced all the way through to the closing song. The group got to see the model box, which is created by the set designer and used to build the set. A particular highlight was meeting the cast, the young people were star struck and the cast were lovely, answering questions posed including how to get into acting.

Black History Month - Kulture at the Cocoon

17th October - 21st October

The Cocoon held a week long programme of activities to mark Black History Month, and explore cultural traditions from across the World. Young people played games such as Ayo and Dominos, as well as learning about fashion and musical traditions. We also had a young person cook up a feast for everyone in the Cocoon. The food included suya, shish chicken, okra and beef soup and rice, carrot, onion and lentil soup. The Winner of Havering Bake Off created and baked the most amazing cake! On Friday afternoon the Cocoon hosted Kulture & Talk. Tendai Dooley gave an inspirational speech which was well received by everyone in the Cocoon, followed by Darren Alexander (Assistant Director of Housing) led a talk & Q&A about goal setting to achieve future dreams. We ended the day with an African Drumming workshop by Mbilla Arts with young people learning a short piece of music and performing it f

Cocoon 5th Anniversary & Care Leavers Week

Celebration - 26th October

Five years since the opening of the Cocoon! It was a great opportunity to mark our 5th anniversary, and what better way to it than with a big party. Young people, young adults, their families and staff across Havering were all welcomed to attend and celebrate. This further coincided with Care Leavers’ Week, therefore it was important to show the talents and skills of the young people we support and incorporate them into the party. We had young people cook food for everyone, the winner of Havering Bake Off baked the most amazing cake, some provided musical entertainment (singing & dancing) and one read a short story they had written. The event was also attended by care leavers over the age of 25 who also wanted to celebrate the Cocoon and the support it has offered during their time in the service.

Diwali

To honour the Festival of Light and provide an opportunity for people to learn more about Diwali Cocoon staff created ‘Rangoli’ with young people who came to the Cocoon. This is where sand is stuck to templates to create colourful and delicate patterns, the art work is then hung by the door to welcome people.

Halloween

A group of young people and their families wore fancy dress and visited Havering Town Hall where they met the Director & Assistant Director of Children’s Services and led a ‘reverse’ trick or treat. Young people went around staff offices at the end of the day, handing out sweets to council staff much to the delight of staff. This was greatly appreciated at 4pm on a Monday afternoon! Staff in turn hid sweet treats around the Town Hall for young people and their families to find and take home. What a fun filled afternoon!

The Cocoon FC. Football Match - 6th December

After regularly training every Tuesday evening, children in care and care leavers challenged Havering staff to a game of football. They were very keen to show off their skills and months of training in all weather.

The Cocoon FC was fully ready, and kitted out. They played exceptionally well and beat the Havering staff 19-13. The game strengthened team morale, cohesion and brought out the competitive nature of our young people. The team was a mixture of males and females and it helped to build their confidence. Football has proved a great way of building bridges across communities, languages and cultures. Additionally, football has proved therapeutic in building confidence, self-belief, managing mental / emotional upset, communication skills and supporting positive friendships. We continue to run weekly football sessions at Romford Power League. Our numbers are going up and we will be looking at arranging a match with some of our neighbouring boroughs’ care leavers.

Christmas Party - 22nd December

.The Cocoon was very grateful to receive donations from Lush (bath bombs & cosmetics), Homebase (Christmas Tree & decorations) and John Lewis (£1500 to buy presents & food for festive celebrations). Staff from Havering Council generously donated items to be gifted to young people and My Place donated a wonderful hamper of food, gifts and toiletries. This event was another fun filled Cocoon party for young people, their families and staff. Due to the wonderful donations, we were able to offer presents to all young people, and create food hampers for those who needed additional supplies over the festive period. It was a lovely afternoon with everyone dancing to music and singing Christmas songs; and spreading some festive cheer.

Christmas Day - 25th December

The Cocoon was open on Christmas Day. All care leavers were aware of the opening and given an opportunity to consider how they were planning to spend Christmas day. As a service we acknowledged that some of our young people and young adults do not have family, or the social networks to support them over the festive period. We do not want anyone to have a lonely or sad Christmas.

Eight young people came to the Cocoon on Christmas day and were served a three course meal, including a traditional roast dinner and lots of yummy deserts. It was a lovely afternoon, filled with lots of laughter as well as all young people receiving Christmas presents. There was even enough food for everyone to take left overs home! On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day two people volunteered to help prepare the food and decorations with staff. One was a care leaver and the other a Youth Support Worker, Ricco. They were a great help! And the Head of Service turned up on Christmas day and did the washing up, much to the appreciation of the young adults. Big shout out to a member of the public who donated a brand new bicycle to a care leaver and has transformed a life, allowing the care leavers easier movement to college and the Cocoon. This was the happiest festive present for this young man who was in tears of appreciation for this gift.

Paediatric First Aid Course (2-Day course)

Cocoon staff attended a paediatric first aid course and 9 successfully passed. This is really important as care leavers with children come into the Cocoon and it is important that staff are in a position to administer first aid in cases of emergency.

Upcoming Events

Trip to Laser Quest & dinner

Therapeutic barber- this will be facilitated by one of our care experienced young people who have completed their barber/ hairdressing course.

National Apprenticeship Week

Come Dine with the Cocoon.

MyBnk - money management workshop

Selfcare & Wellbeing Workshop - Become Charity

Young People's Feedback

Feedback from care experienced young people helps us hold the mirror up to ourselves and be our conscience. Over the last month, we have tried different ways of getting feedback: At events we asked young people to finish the sentence the Cocoon is... here are their answers:

" A fun and supportive place"

"Full of beautiful people."

"Alive!"

"Somewhere to go when you are feeling low."

"Somewhere to relax and be yourself around others."

"Dynamic."

"There is always amazing & cool people to talk to... if you just want to talk about any issues or stresses."

"You can speak things into existance when you are here and break boundaries for yourself."

How can we improve the Cocoon?

"We eat a lot at the Cocoon, so it would nice to have a big dining table with chairs and a bigger kitchen"

"More games on the X-Box"

“A bigger space”

“More private space for time out or counselling”