He was reluctant to speak when we first met Max* through our Hospital Navigators project. But after getting to know us and accepting support, his confidence skyrocketed – and he’s now a regular volunteer at Together As One. This is his story.
But first, here’s a bit about the Hospital Navigators.
The Hospital Navigators project is made up of youth workers and trained volunteers who support young people present at the Emergency Department due to mental health, substance use, violence and related issues.
The Hospital Navigators support those aged 11-25 and signpost them to the right provision, including all the work we do at Together As One. Since most referrals are received out of hours, our Hospital Navigators can contact the young person directly to offer support whenever they need it.
Within a year, 310 young people were referred to the scheme. Max was one of the 158 who were supported onto a positive pathway to help break the cycle of readmission.
Following the initial engagement, the Hospital Navigators spoke to Max’s mum – who confirmed she’d appreciate any support. After giving Max time and space to think things over, they followed up with a phone call and hashed out a plan to provide continued support.
A couple of months later, Max attended his first session at Volunteer Night in August 2022 and has been engaging in many of our provisions ever since.
As well as coming to our weekly Volunteer Night, where he participates in many community projects like our bee-keeping project, he also attends our SEND Youth Forum where he advocates for young people with SEND.
During the holidays, he takes part in our HAF provision, Global Grub, where young people can learn how to cook, play games and get stuck into crafting activities. Max rated it a solid 10/10 – saying it provided a great space to socialise and learn new skills.
In total, Max has completed 131 sessions which amounts to 405.5 hours! We’re so proud of his progress so far and his transformation into a confident and engaging young person.
If you’d like more information about Hospital Navigators, get in touch with Romaan at [email protected].
A warm welcome to Raheem Adris-Briggs our new Project Worker.
Born and raised in Slough, Raheem’s journey to TAO is rooted in his passion for writing, mental health advocacy and empowering young people. From first dipping his toe into Together As One as a volunteer to becoming a full-time member of staff, Raheem has been dedicated to making a positive impact from day one.
We caught up with Raheem to learn about his experience, passions and how he supports our young people.
Tell us about yourself
Born in Slough, I’ve spent most of my life here. I went to Westgate and then Windsor College before going to The University of Roehampton where I worked towards a degree in Creative and Professional Writing. As an aspiring Journalist, I hope to use my writing to speak about my various passions, including sports and, most importantly, mental health.
How did you get into working with children and young people?
It’s a funny story, actually. For one of my modules at Uni, I was required to find and undertake a work placement. My mum has always worked with young people, so I asked if she knew anyone to help. She mentioned a great guy who runs youth provisions, including a volunteer night every Tuesday – his name was Rob. So, she put me in touch. Rob was great, told me more about Volunteer Night, and I started helping out every week. Little did I know, that I would end up staffing that same Volunteer Night with the team, among other groups and projects.
What made you decide to join TAO?
For me, feeling comfortable and surrounded by a collective of like-minded people is really important. Since my early days volunteering, everyone at TAO made me feel welcome and valued. It’s not a given that you can be your authentic self everywhere you work, but it is at TAO. It is a great environment to tailor your skills, develop your strengths and be yourself.
On a more personal level, I’ve seen a lot growing up in Slough, which has not only affected me but my friends and classmates. As someone lucky enough to navigate through the tribulations, I hope to help young people do the same by being a positive role model.
What have been your highlights of working with TAO so far?
I think it’s the small things that mean the most a lot of the time. I’ve had children come up to me and say, “Thank you, you made me feel happy today.” I’ve witnessed the young people I work with on BOOST progress towards their goals, whether that is falling back in love with their hobbies or starting to understand the way they work. It’s a blessing to be in a position where you can make a difference in the many lives you encounter.
The office also has such a good vibe – everyone on the team is so friendly, approachable and eager to learn from one another. It makes all the difference.
Your role is all about empowering young people, what makes you feel empowered?
I would say being heard – not just having someone hear what you say, but listening on a deeper level. And likewise, actively listening to others. Good conversations with respectful people can teach you a lot about others and yourself too.
What activities and/or hobbies bring you joy?
Listening to music is probably my biggest hobby at the moment. I’ve recently started collecting vinyl, which has deepened my enjoyment and experience. I’m big on Frank Ocean, Travis Scott, SZA and Billie Eilish – if it sounds good or interesting, I’ll find enjoyment in it.
Recently, writing poetry has been another big one for me. It’s helped me process and come to terms with many things in my life. Going to poetry nights and performing has also developed my confidence in public speaking and talking openly about my emotions, which is so important.
I love sport, too. Football and basketball are my favourites to watch and play. Although I am a Manchester United fan, sometimes supporting my team brings me more pain than pleasure.
What do you think makes a good and connected community?
I would say a space where people feel safe to express themselves and are willing to learn from one another. There is peace in understanding that we all think and behave differently, as that is what makes us unique. Connection comes from respecting one another and empowering everyone to have a voice.
What piece of advice would you give to your younger self?
Stay the course – trust in yourself, and trust in God. You are becoming the person that you are meant to be not in spite of, but because of the challenges you face.
In his new role, Raheem supports young people through BOOST, Hive, Hive+, Navigators and Volunteer Night. Get in touch with Raheem at 07743560263 or email him at [email protected]
We are thrilled to share that our Boost Project has been featured in a landmark report by the prominent mental health organisation, Rethink Mental Illness. The report, titled Towards a Cohesive Whole, emphasises the critical role of the voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) sector in bridging service gaps and providing early, holistic support for mental health needs. However, it also calls for stronger and more effective collaboration between the NHS and the VCSE sector.
Our Boost Project is proudly showcased as one of seven successful examples of partnerships between the NHS and the voluntary sector, highlighting how collaboration can enhance the delivery of care.
Key Findings
The report underscores the urgent need for a cohesive, whole-system approach to address the mental health needs of children and young people (CYP). Among its key findings are:
One in five young people in England lives with a mental illness or disorder, yet nearly half lack access to the support they need.
A comprehensive strategy is essential to close this treatment gap, prevent escalating mental health challenges, and ensure young people receive timely and effective care.
The VCSE sector plays a vital role in delivering early intervention and holistic support, but it must be recognised as an equal partner to statutory services for its contributions to be fully realised.
Dedicated funding is required to enable all components of the mental health system to work seamlessly together to support young people.
The report advocates for a transformative, long-term plan for CYP mental health, centred on integrating services across sectors and encouraging robust collaboration between the NHS and the VCSE sector. With the upcoming Ten Year Health Plan, there is a pivotal opportunity to establish a visionary framework for CYP mental health that prioritises a cohesive, whole-system approach.
This recognition of the Boost Project reinforces our commitment to creating impactful partnerships and delivering meaningful support to young people in need. We would like to thank our colleagues at UK Youth for supporting us in making the project happen and our colleagues at CAMHS for working with the collaborative ethos advocated by this report.
To read the report, please visit the Rethink Mental Illness website here.
If you were to ask someone what Global Grub involves who had no prior knowledge of the project, they might correctly guess it involves food from different cultures. Less obvious is the project’s link to mental health, but a desire to deliver proactive work on mental health motivated the creation of Global Grub. As the title suggests, we also believe the project is a fine example of youth participation.
The Mental Health Connection
Mental Health Awareness Week, May 2021, we challenged the young people accessing our services to design a project based on the Five Ways to Wellbeing. The ‘Five Ways’ are five things that everyone can do to strengthen their mental wellbeing. In a way, this was partly an academic exercise: it’s main objective, to see if the young people understood the ‘Five Ways’ framework.
The young people presented their ideas to each other, and one stood out above all others – not least because the other young people in attendance also thought it was brilliant. Their idea was to learn to cook food from different cultures during the summer holidays – a time when many felt their mental health was at its lowest due to social isolation. They suggested a cooking project would help them to Connect with other people. By cooking food from different cultures, the young people would be Learning, and finally, through exposure to new dishes, they would be more Mindful due to a raised awareness of new flavours and scents. As the project has evolved, we have integrated new ad hoc ways of learning, for example this month (Easter ’24), the young people have the opportunity to learn to DJ and paint henna. An additional ‘way to wellbeing’ has also been integrated via being active: for example, this month, team games like dodgeball have also been integrated into the programme. In keeping with the broader ethos of Global Grub, these are young people’s ideas.
Participation
As must have been clear by now, youth voice was at the forefront of this project’s development. Building on the initial excitement from that first week when the young people had conceived the idea for Global Grub, we spent the following weeks both listening to the young people’s ideas so that they could shape the project (for example it was in one of those sessions that they came up with the name “Global Grub”), but also training the young people in skills so that they could assist with the search for funding to actually get the project off the ground.
Youth voice and participation has been at the forefront of the continued development of the project and has led to some special twists on its delivery, such as retiming the cooking sessions to coincide with Iftar during Ramadan. Other, modifications have included Global Grub picnics, where we take the food to the park and the young people assemble it themselves, making wraps and salads.
Another area of the project that young people have led is promotion. We have found the most effective approach is for young people to record pieces ‘talking to the camera’ promoting what is going to happen. These clips are then shared on range of social media platforms. Not only does this promote the project, but it also supports new skills development for the young people involved.
Funding
The young people had a vision for the project in May, but where could we find funding? Their idea coincided with the launch of an NHS Innovation Fund and Frimley ICB awarded the project £5,000. Meanwhile, Marcus Rashford successfully campaigned for young people entitled to Free School Meals to have similar rights during school holidays. The opportunities presented by these two funding streams allowed us to deliver our first Global Grub in July and August of that year. In subsequent years, the HAF Fund has been a vital source of funding, as has been generous donations from Stoke Park.
Key Ingredients
As is so often the case with youth work projects, the right staff are integral to the successful running of the project. Kevin Muhammad has been key to the success of the project. Kevin cut his teeth in a range of commercial kitchens before starting to run his own courses and he later became a home economics teacher at Windsor Boys’ School. Kevin has a fantastic rapport with the young people accessing our services. Finding any teacher who could teach the young people was challenging – most are looking forward to their holidays, when Global Grub takes place – so to find one with Kevin’s qualities was an astounding piece of luck.
Kevin has been ably supported by our youth workers and have spent enough time with Kevin that though he is unable to join us this Easter, they have learned enough from him to ‘hold the fort.’ This would have been unthinkable a couple of years ago and highlights how much he has built our capacity. Indeed, in December 2021, we were faced with that very challenge as Kevin tested positive for COVID on the eve of four days of Global Grub. Thankfully at this point we had 19 months experience of online youth work. We simply dropped off the ingredients at the young people’s homes and met them online, where Kevin felt well enough to instruct them how to cook on Zoom.
Another key ingredient of the project is a venue. This has not always been the easiest aspect of the project. Initially we put a makeshift kitchen into the YES Shop – a pop up venue in the local shopping centre. The venue was ideal for us – centrally located, with a recreation room off the main kitchen for activities. When the Queensmere shut this side of the shopping centre we needed to look further afield. We relocated to Weekes Drive Community Centre in Cippenham. This took us away from the centre but was an easier location for pick-ups and drop offs. It was also prohibitively expensive. It led us to our latest destination in Kedermister Park, Langley, a venue owned by the Guides. The venue has a sizeable kitchen and a decent sized hall we can use for various activities. The park has a reputation for violence and antisocial behaviour so there is also a sense that we are in the right location, to bring something positive to an area which needs it.
Equipment
We have a lot of equipment, and this is an ingredient which cannot be underestimated. The key reason for this, is that if the project was simply about giving the young people food, a few industrial sized pans would have sufficed. But the project has always sought to ensure the young people can reproduce the dishes at home, and if they were only familiar with, for example, making a small contribution to an industrial process, they couldn’t recreate the recipes. Instead, every young person goes through all the steps themselves, and if that means that seven young people are cooking at the same time and it’s a recipe requiring two pans, we need fourteen pans in total. It is easy to see how an abundance of equipment is important.
The Recipes
Global Grub is run during the school holidays in Easter (one week), Summer (four weeks) and Christmas (one week). The dishes are determined in consultation with young people. They create a long list and Kevin, Sanna and Aida establish what can be achieved in a one-hour cooking session.
We had intended to create a cookbook for the young people, of the recipes they created. However, the young people told us quite directly that any such books would gather dust and not be looked at. Rather, they advocated for the creation of TikToks which would allow the young people to remember and follow the recipes in future, in a much more interesting way. At the time of writing, Global Grub recipes have attracted over a thousand views!
Famous Supporters and Royal Participation
As noted above, the project was no stranger to leveraging to power of social media, most significantly with promotional work on YouTube and recipes on TikTok. We also used Instagram, Facebook, and X to advertise the project. Marcus Rashford made one of our Global Grub tweets our most shared tweet ever when he retweeted it from his official account, resulting in over 230,000 views. Even more impressively, in January 2023, HRH Prince William visited Together As One to learn more about our work and took part in a Global Grub cooking session.
HRH Prince William gets involved in Global Grub cooking with Inaaya and Daisha.
Views of Third Parties
Donna Sheldon visited Global Grub on behalf of the Department for Education in August 2023. We were delighted she took the time to really engage with the young people and joined us for some food. She was impressed with that she saw and invited Together As One to be a part of a best practice Bite Size Learning clip for HAF Providers. The clip can be seen below with the focus on Slough from 12:48:
Participation
Global Grub pre-dates our move to the fantastic Upshot system, which analyses data so straightforwardly for us. However, we can take 2023 as a snapshot to give readers an understanding of the scale of young people’s involvement and the diversity of the young people who have chosen to get involved. 128 young people took part in Global Grub. The average age of the participants was 14. The young people were from six different faiths and eighteen different ethnicities. 32 of the young people indicated they had SEND or a mental health condition.
At any given time, we struggle to exceed 7 or 8 young people in the kitchen. The optimum number of participants is probably slightly fewer at 5 or 6. The project has grown in popularity and though the young people who initially conceived the idea have started to move on, the new young people have shown a fantastic appetite for it to continue.
Evaluation
During the first Global Grub we asked young people to rate themselves against these key questions:
How would you rate…
your ability to cook different dishes?
knowledge of different cultures?
knowledge of nutrition?
confidence in communicating with people you don’t know?
We also used the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale to try to gain an understand of the project’s impact on mental health. Across the four areas outlined above and all but two of the areas covered in WEMWBS, the young people attested to an improvement.
Key Ingredients
Spaces for youth voice to inform project development.
Staff who are able to draw on youth work skills, as well as food technology
A spacious kitchen preferably with multiple ovens/hobs.
Plenty of equipment – the kinds of which you might find in your own home, rather than large commercial pans.
Today marks a significant occasion, long-awaited and carefully prepared for! A group of young people from Slough are embarking on a journey to Ley Hill Cricket Club, eager to begin their education in the art of beekeeping.
But how did we reach this point? The British Science Association (BSA), along with the University of Reading and Slough CVS, extended invitations to community groups and charities in Slough and Reading. These groups primarily serve communities that are either new to research or typically underrepresented in such endeavours, inviting them to participate in a Community Led Research Pilot.
Initial discussions between the young volunteers of Together As One (Aik Saath) and representatives from the University of Reading and SCVS revealed a strong interest among the young people in the natural world and environmental issues. Some were concerned about climate change, while others were eager to contribute more to environmental causes.
Throughout the summer of 2023, the young volunteers participated in a diverse array of environmental activities, including upcycling clothing, canal cleaning, and learning about bat conservation and beekeeping. Among these activities, the beekeeping session emerged as a favourite among the young people. Their feedback indicated a strong enjoyment of all sessions, with beekeeping being the preferred pursuit to carry forward.
So, what came next? The university recognized the value of the young people’s journey, and due to the success of the initial exploratory projects, a decision was made to delve deeper. It became apparent from the outset that engagement in environmental activities could benefit the young people, and beekeeping was a subject they wished to explore further.
After successfully reapplying to the BSA, the project was selected to explore the impact of beekeeping on young people’s mental health. The search began for a beekeeping club or society willing to offer support. Several societies were contacted, and one, Chalfonts Beekeepers’ Society, enthusiastically offered their assistance. Their President, Sarah Peterson, has been supportive from the outset, and the society has generously collaborated to develop a training program for the young people.
While bees play a vital role in humanity’s survival, they aren’t always viewed positively. Securing accessible land willing to host a hive posed challenges. However, a pocket park next to Cocksherd Woods in Britwell has been identified as the ideal site. The volunteer-led site has everything a hive might need, including security, level surfaces and access to water via a pond (not essential but most welcome). Moreover, this initiative has the potential to contribute to broader initiatives aimed at making Slough more hospitable to wildlife, facilitated by the newly established Green Slough Community Development Trust.
Meanwhile, the university introduced the project team to Prof. Ciara McCabe, a renowned academic in mental health research, and her doctoral student, Sena Demir Kassem. They lead the research aspect of the project, focusing on mental health. Additionally, the project team is gaining valuable insights from them into the research process undertaken by universities and how to collaborate effectively with higher education institutions.
Please check back to follow our journey!
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