Who is it for?
Age: 11-24
Gender: Young people identifying as male
Where: Canterbury, Ashford and Folkestone districts.
For young people who may have historically witnessed or experienced domestic abuse.
Sessions are carried out weekly by one of our male team members. We offer the option for a parent/carer to be part of the initial session with the young person, if this is felt to be helpful.
An initial 12 sessions are offered and this can be extended for up to year, if felt to be necessary.
Sessions are primarily face to face with the option for remote support.
Individual Work
We offer either 1-1 mentoring or counselling/therapy for adolescent boys aged 11-18. We assess each referral individually, before considering whether to offer mentoring or therapy. For young men aged 18-24, we offer mentoring only.
In all of this work, we centre our approach around Rising Sun’s six core values. These are Reflective, Child/Survivor Centred, Holistic, Strengths Based, Gender Responsive/Feminist and Trauma Informed.
All of our work is reflective in its approach, offering each young person the chance to reflect on their experiences, while not pushing them towards immediate solutions or actions.
Our work is child-centred. We work at the pace of the young person and give them space to discuss their own experiences and concerns.
We are holistic in our approach and consider the needs of the whole young person, as well as considering the needs of their family and the environment they are living in.
Our work with boys and young men is responsive to their gender. We are a feminist organisation and we recognise domestic abuse is a gendered crime. We offer all young people the opportunity to consider their own relationship with their gender and their experiences in the context of their gender.
Our work is strengths based, as we work with all young people to build on their strengths and resiliencies, rather than pushing them to consider their difficulties and struggles.
Finally, our work is trauma informed. This over-rides our whole approach. We recognise the impact trauma has had on each young person and we focus on creating a safe, containing space with each young person, so they feel safe in their relationship with us as their worker. We work at each young person’s pace, without pushing them to discuss anything, before they are ready.
Further to this, all of the young people we work with, voluntarily engage in the relationship which encourages empowerment and willing participation.
Below is a video presenting our approach in more detail and looking at trauma focussed aspect of our work:
Group Programmes
As part of our work with adolescent boys, we also offer groups in secondary schools focusing on healthy relationships. These groups tend to be for 6-8 weeks, and explore topics such as gender stereotypes, healthy and unhealthy behaviours and relationships, online safety and sex and consent.
If your school is interested in this programme, please contact us and we can discuss this with you further.
If you wish to refer a young person to this mentoring programme please click here to make a referral.