CONTENTS

Message from new Chair....................1

Chief Exec full of praise......................2

CYCA Wellbeing.................................3

Mentoring key to children’s

resiliency...........................................4

New project up and running...again....6

Project goes from strength to

Strength.............................................7

Groundbreaking school

work begins.......................................8

‘Breaking Cycles’ for Dads

and their children..............................9

Online support reaches out

to thousands....................................10

CYCA Training..................................11

Training programme ahead

of the game......................................12

CYCA Play Clubs..............................13

Play Clubs receive record

numbers..........................................14

CYCA Early Years............................16

Nurseries rewarded for

success...........................................17

I have been Chairperson for CYCA for the past twelve months. It has been an honour and a privilege to be as involved with an organisation as forward think-ing as CYCA. The organisation has developed into a very complex entity, one which exists to help and support children, young people and families often caught up in the difficulties of modern life. Carmarthenshire Youth & Children’s organisation run three Flying Start nurseries offering care and education from birth to school age. The staff in these nurseries have the qualifications and expertise built up over many years. We also manage after school clubs, mentoring clubs and holiday clubs, again with dedicated and trained staff. As an organisation CYCA is very involved with the family unit, offering mentoring and guidance to families when things start to unravel, as well as dealing with families in crisis. Early intervention is always the preferred option. We see ourselves as an integral part of communities throughout Carmarthenshire. Government cut backs have resulted in funding for projects becoming more difficult to secure. CYCA has a strong team of experts who have developed the relevant skills needed to gain funding for our new and innovative projects. The CYCA team is led by the Chief Executive, Mrs. Tracy Pike, her deputy Mr. Matthew Newbold and the Finance Manager, Mrs. Janet Jones. They each lead an excellent team of managers and officers who, between them deliver quality care and guidance, which ultimately results in the organisation receiving recognition and funding to develop cutting edge projects for young people. To Tracy and her staff I say thank you for all the help and hard work you have devoted to CYCA. To my Deputy Chairperson and the Board of Trustees I give my heartfelt thanks and gratitude for the help and support that they have given to both myself and more importantly to CYCA. I can only hope that the year ahead is as challenging and rewarding as this one has been.

Jan Williams, CYCA Chairperson

2013/2014 has been another very busy year for the Charity, where CYCA has reached out to hundreds of families in the County. Our emotional well being and resiliency services have now become our core business, allowing us to help many young adults to live independently and raise their aspirations. All CYCA family support staff are trained in our in house resiliency programme that we have developed, ensuring that we can rigorously measure and evaluate all our work for our funders. Our model of Empathy, Recovery and Motivation underpins all our work. In my role as a CEOP Ambassador I am also addressing the most worrying trends in youth behaviours such as cyber bullying and online child exploitation. In May 2014 we began our Families In Crisis 2 project, funded by the Big Lottery. We have been able to employ a new team of highly experienced practitioners enabling us to reach out to 96 new families until 2017. Demands for services has never been so high, so we are so thankful to the Lottery for continuing to fund us. We are also into our third year of the Securing Futures project, and our focus is now on developing e-therapy so

we can reach out to more families in rural Carmarthenshire who may not be able to access some of our services. The Interactive Support Gateway which is part of our main website, offers all the newest research and developments for emotional well being. Some new exciting work has began with three Llanelli primary schools as part of the Family Foundation initiative. The project enables parents with their children, to learn interventions that focus on attachment, emotional wellbeing and resilience. We feel very privileged to have been offered this opportunity. Our three nursery settings were successful in becoming Flying Start settings, enabling us to support local children in the communities where they live. All settings also received excellent CSSIW inspections. Our partnership with Carmarthenshire County Council continues to thrive enabling us to support some of the most vulnerable children and young people in the County. Funding from both Llanelli Town and Rural councils has never been so vital, enabling us to retain core services in play. All CYCA staff work tirelessly throughout the year ensuring we are one of the largest Children’s Charities

in the County providing services of the highest possible standard. In particular, I would like to thank my

Assistant CEO Matthew Newbold and Finance manager Janet Jones as they have undertaken new roles in

managing CYCA. And finally to my Chair Jan Williams and the executive group in particular, but all

trustees who give their time and support freely throughout the year to ensure that the work of CYCA

continues to grow and develop.

Diolch yn fawr iawn.

Tracy Pike Chief Executive Officer

“I see things in a different way, not everything is negative. I feel better in myself and would like to say thank you.”

Securing Futures Family KG13

“CYCA have supported many of our Looked After Children through mentoring, many of whom have experienced multiple trauma and neglect. All the staff are highly committed and engage with the young people, being sensitive to their individual needs.“ Bethan James, Service Manager for Corporate Parenting & Child Welfare

Once again this year, delivering a mentoring programme for children, young

people and their families has been a major part of our wellbeing services.

Over the course of the year, we have seen a rapid increase in demand for our

mentoring delivery programme, which has been as a result of both increases

in referrals to our own projects, as well as a large increase in commissioned

referrals from the public sector. This highlights the importance of the work

and ultimately, the lack of alternative support that is available to children and

parents within the County from both statutory services and the other third

sector organisations.

As the demand for the service has grown, so to has the skill-set and expertise

of our mentoring team, as they have had the opportunity to take part in a host

of training workshops throughout the year, both in-house and external. A

major focus on staff development has been based around our new ‘Stress &

Resiliency’ delivery model for children and families, where all of our mentors

work through a consistent support programme that is underpinned by attachment, neuroscience and resiliency

theories. The programme allows children and their families to set clear goals of where they want to get to, whilst

at the same time enables them to understand their own emotional needs, build up self resiliency, develop secure

attachments and learn how to self soothe and regulate their emotions.

As well as the mentoring that takes place as part our projects and services, we have continued to run our

successful ‘Mentoring Club’ at our Palms Centre, where we work with young people from the age of 14 years old

and support them in to adulthood, ensuring they gain entry further education and training. Some of the young

adults have also become peer mentors. The sessions offer a safe, stimulating environment where they get

together, share experiences and have fun! Through activities such as healthy cooking, music, aromatherapy,

arts and crafts and massage, the young people are nurtured and developed in a manner which helps them build

self-confidence, self-esteem, motivation, and self-worth. Highlights of this club have seen the group take part in

music sessions with the ‘Rock Academy’ as well as healthy cooking and art & craft workshops. Also this year we

have developed a tailor made programme of workshops, where the young people have devised their own topics

of discussion centred around emotional health and wellbeing, which are then transformed and delivered by our

very own therapists. We have also had Big Brother 2013 Winner Sam Evans visit the group throughout the year

to talk about his general experiences. The young people have also created their own ‘blog’ where they write and

upload their own articles about mentoring club.

Following the success of our Families in Crisis (FIC) project between 2009-2012 it was identified that there were similar gaps in service provision across other areas in the county, namely Carmarthen and Ammanford towns, which are also both recognised as areas of deprivation and rural isolation. We know that these factors increase the likelihood of other problems (i.e. confidence and self-esteem, debt and employment difficulties, relationship breakdowns, substance misuse and much more) and with many of these families not meeting the criteria for statutory support it was important for us to ensure the work in these areas could develop, and thus we bid for further funding which thankfully we successfully gained once more through the Big Lottery Fund. Following the success of our BIG Lottery application, FIC 2 commenced in June 2014. On arrival into post there was already a stack of enquiries waiting for the attention of the Case Manager. Since June that number has grown further, totalling over 60 referrals for support by December 2014. This shows clear evidence for both the level of local needs as well as the

existing strong relationship held with referrers who have faith in our capability. Our project aim is to work with 24 families in year one and therefore given the influx of referrals, we have every opportunity to exceed this. The FIC 2 project is a small team made up of a Case Manager, a Stress Practitioner and a bank of family mentors. At full capacity, we work with 15 families on a weekly basis across Carmarthen town, Ammanford town and Llanelli Town. Each of these families has been given an individually tailored support package to meet their needs. This can include a stress practitioner, a counsellor, a family or children’s mentor, or a combination. All of the support options will look at stress and related emotions and coping, with our work underpinned by attachment theory, neuroscience as well as resiliency theories. Our aim is to work with families for between two and six months (dependent on their needs) in order to give them the best chance to achieve their individual goals. We are very much picking up momentum within the project and likewise with our families. We look forward to the next six months which will include endings with some families, beginnings with others as well as our ‘first birthday bash’ in May-June 2015. We hope that our key partners will join us to celebrate the end of our first year and the beginning of two more. If you would like more information on this, or to become a key partner, please feel free to get in touch with our Case Manager, Cara Spowart on 01554 757599 or by email on cara@cycaonline.org

Our BIG Lottery funded project, Securing Futures has now entered its third year and we are delighted to announce that we have successfully supported over 120 families to date across the whole of Carmarthenshire. The project continues to support families where parents are experiencing low level mental health issues or learning disabilities. The project has an experienced team of mentors who provide a valuable and consistent support to children aged 5 to 10 years old who focus on building their resiliency skills. This is delivered through a range of therapeutic interventions including mentoring in and out of schools, family support and play therapy. This year proved to be a very exciting one for the project team as we enlisted the expertise of an external consultant, namely Jude Sellen of the Wellbeing Projects, a UK wide organisation specialising in improving the emotional health and wellbeing of families. Jude visited us throughout the year on a monthly basis providing the team with both training and also assisting them in developing an innovative ‘goal setting pack’, which has empowered and focussed all project staff to enable both the project to achieve more consistent outcomes, and the families themselves to improve their own self-resiliency and wellbeing. The outcomes of the project are aimed at improving children’s health and well being and their educational outcomes. We want to empower families to become stronger and safer. The project is on target and we continue to receive referrals from our established agencies and are creating crucial links with schools and health visitors. The Securing Futures team are working hard to continue their success in the third year of the project and to remain a vital community based service for families in need of early intervention support.. For further details and to make a referral to the project, contact us on 01554 757599 or email the Case Managers, Joanne Williams at joanne@cycaonline.org and/or Kath Bowen at kath@cycaonline.org

Our newest venture includes a groundbreaking joint partnership project with three schools within Llanelli, namely Stebonheath, Halfway, and Bigyn Primary schools. The partnership entails CYCA staff (a mix of counsellors and play workers) working within the school setting, offering unique workshops to parents/carers, children and staff to further understand child behaviour and how to actively understand and support their needs. The content of the workshop is underpinned by attachment theory and helps us to view child behaviour in an alternative light, i.e. ‘not badly behaved’ but a communication of their needs. Fun activities are done with both parents/carers, children and the facilitators taking part. The activities which are evidenced to support the development of self-esteem, confidence and emotional regulation also have a dual purpose which is to help strengthen the bond between parent/carer and child. For example, activities have included looking at emotions (and managing big feelings), ‘what’s good about me’, looking at families and support networks, and relaxation techniques. By engaging in the sessions the aim is for children to develop

far more socially, emotionally and cognitively, resulting in a reduction of outbursts of ‘bad behaviour’ and enables them to safely engage in learning, and build relationships with teachers and class mates. At the end of our time with the children, parents/carers participate in their own workshop where we explore various issues, and provide opportunities for parents/carers to reflect on their child’s behaviour by understanding the development of the brain and attachments as well as getting them to reflect on their own communication with their child, and how they cope and manage the stress that being a parent or carer entails. The programme is proving to be a major success, with everyone returning weekly to work through the sessions. The feedback from both parents/carers and the school is that the sessions are having a major impact on the children's behaviour. We are currently preparing for the next intake of children and their parents or carers, and hope that this work can continue to develop and progress to other schools in the near future.

This year also saw us expand our horizons in terms of our standard wellbeing support services as we developed and implemented our innovative ‘Breaking Cycles’ project. Through the delivery of numerous wellbeing projects and services over many years, one of the consistent themes noticed was the impact of an absent Father upon children and young people. They have very little communication with their Dad, and when Dad is released from prison there are few if any support services, focused on the family unit. With funding secured from The Dyfed Powys Police and Crime Commissioner, we developed a service to manage this gap in provision, focussing on working with Dads who had been released, offering a community based service, namely ’Breaking Cycles’. The focus was not only to support relationships but also to minimise the risk of a child following patterns into crime as a response to the lack of a positive male role model and the stigma of having a father who had been to prison. A six week course was written for the Dads underpinned by theories on attachment, reflective practise, active listening, models of parenting and the neuroscience of the brain. This course was offered within two existing community based services that whilst supporting clients, they did not focus on the experience of being imprisoned on the parent and child relationship. The course was experiential running twice a week with at least 6 participants per session, including 2 clients referred from Children’s Services. The flexibility of the course meant that Dads could drop in and out of the course, however for the most part the participants continued from beginning to end. The work also included the opportunity for individual work with a Therapist, exploring in more depths the themes of the course and the relationship between parent and child. Three Dads utilised this element of the project working closely with Children's Services also to develop a positive and secure relationship with their children. As the courses draws to a close, the feedback has been positive, with comments including that it has been ‘useful’, ‘interesting’ and ‘helping to think about things from the child’s point of view’. It is believed that by focussing on the importance of being an engaged and involved Dad, this will not only support the child to break unhealthy cycles but also to recognise the identity of a Dad not as an ex-prisoner but as a vital and necessary father to a child.

Following last year’s successful launch, our new online emotional health support service - ‘Interactive Support Gateway’ has gone from strength to strength, receiving over 50,000 ‘hits’ in its first year. All visitors to the ‘gateway’ have access to generic emotional health support via a range of interactive information and advice, including downloadable support tools, video support bytes and links to local and national support agencies and groups. The focus during this year has been to develop the separate ‘log-in’ area of the ‘gateway’, where CYCA service users have unique and direct access to a number of additional and more focussed interventions. It is in this area, that clients are able to access an interactive online version of our newly developed ‘Stress & Resiliency’ support package, which supplements the face-to-face support that clients receive directly from our team of mentors and therapists.

As well as having access to online information and support, within the secure ‘log-in’ area, our clients also have access to direct e-therapy via a member of our team through live video and/or chat sessions. The aim of this newly created resource is to allow our clients more flexibility in terms of how and when they are able to have access to our support programmes. It also enables those who are rurally and/or socially isolated to have access to much needed support. The resource also enables us to reach out and engage with some of our younger clients who can often feel stigmatized by taking part in a face-to-face session. Over the next year, our aim is to continue to develop the ‘gateway’ and to get it recognised as the number one online emotional health support resource for the people of Carmarthenshire...and beyond!

www.cycaisg.com

“A fabulous course, and brilliant trainer. It was great to be present with other professional to see a multi agency approach”.

Participant in ‘Safeguarding Children Online - Sexual Exploitation &

Grooming’ course - 21/03/14

This year has seen us develop and run some exciting new training programmes from our Palms Training Centre. Our Chief Executive, Tracy Pike has recently become a CEOP Ambassador and has written a specialised 2 day training course on ‘Safeguarding Children Online - Sexual Exploitation & Grooming’. After delivering the course to our staff early in the year, it was rolled out to agencies throughout the County who support with children and young people. The sessions have proved to be a major success attracting representatives from Dyfed Powys Police, Social Services, Team Around the Family, Family Centres and numerous Primary and Secondary Schools. Throughout the year, we also developed and delivered a unique training package for our staff based around emotional health and wellbeing. As well as ‘in-house’ workshops, this also included a monthly programme delivered by nationally acclaimed emotional health and wellbeing professional, Jude Sellen. The main focus of the training programme for

staff has been on up-skilling and empowering them on how to engage with children, young people and families in a way which helps them increase their self resiliency and build secure attachments, which ultimately leaves them in a place in which they can move forward and overcome any difficulties in their lives. Our training centre continues to be extremely popular, with a number of external agencies, including Flying Start Officers, Carmarthenshire Adoption Panel and Carmarthenshire Children’s Inclusion Scheme hiring the facilities (which includes the use of Little Seraphs Day Nursery & Crèche) to carry out their own organisational training. All of our courses are based around the theme of emotional health and wellbeing, self-resiliency and personal development and are delivered by a highly qualified, experience and specialist team. For further details, contact our CEO Tracy Pike on 01554 757599 or email tracy@cycaonline.org

“Excellent service!! My child loves coming to CYCA’s Summer Holiday Club. Everything about CYCA clubs are 10 out of 10!!!”

Ms J Janes, Llanelli “Children attending after school club are treated with dignity and respect. We noted a warm welcome that each of them receive on arrival, and how staff interact positive and courteously with all the children present.” CSSIW Inspection Report, June 2014

It has been a extremely successful year for our Play Clubs, recording record numbers in our 4 After School Clubs which are based within Bryn School, Dewi Sant Play Centre, Ysgol Ffwrnes and Ysgol Maes y Morfa. The club’s provide children with the opportunity to participate in stimulating play sessions. Play encourages and supports children’s learning and development and enable’s children to create, discover, try out new ideas and use their imagination within a safe environment. The clubs cater for the individual needs of the children and staff provide a range of activities that encourages children to be engage. This year, our play teams received a new training programme provided by Clybiau Plant Cymru, which provided a wealth of new exciting ideas for staff to develop within their clubs. The clubs have also participated in a range of activities that focused on inclusion and the children’s health and well-being. These activities included: Boxing - where the children participated in 10 sessions over a 5 week

period. On completion of the programme, the children were delighted to be awarded a certificate! Healthy Cooking workshops - we had a range of different cooking activities that promoted healthy eating. Dance production - the children, staff and dance teacher worked over the summer holidays to produce and

participate in ‘A CYCA’s Got Talent Show’. The children produced a number of different acts, from a Disney Frozen group production, gymnastics routine, comedy act, violin and an Elvis impersonation.

Art - this year we sourced an Art provider who worked with the children to produce art displays focusing on using different methods and techniques.

Parkour / Free-Running - due to its popularity the Parkour / free-running returned again over the summer. The

instructor worked with the children, building on new skills and raising participation levels.

For further information on our play clubs contact our Play Officer, Kath Bowen on 01554 757599 or email

kath@cycaonline.org

“Lidia has had the best time in Teddybears, and will have lots of lovely memories. She has come on so much and that is thanks to you and all the lovely staff.”

Lissa Williams , Teddybears Nursery Parent

“Overall we found that children benefit from nurturing and fulfilling care in a setting that provides exciting and stimulating experiences that contribute to their all round development.”

CSSIW Inspection Report, September 2014

It has been another successful year for our three early years settings, with Jellitotz and Teddybears successfully obtaining Flying Start tenders once again in April. Little Seraphs nursery also had cause to celebrate as both their private crèche and Flying Start numbers increased significantly throughout the year. All three settings also received excellent inspection reports from CSSIW. Other news at Little Seraphs, saw Cerys Thomas take up the role as Nursery Leader from Cheryl Rees, who left CYCA after a number of successful and enjoyable years. All three nurseries had the opportunity to have some wonderful days out during the year. These included a trip to Penclacwydd to feed the ducks and see Santa, a spring time visit to the Swansea Community Farm to enhance the children's learning about spring animals. Teddybears children also had a summer trip to Anna Richardson Safari Park which tied into beautifully to their summer theme of “Traveling around the world” visiting various countries, including France, Egypt, Italy and Kenya. Also during the summer, the nursery children paid a special visit to the National Eisteddfod on Llanelli. Little Seraphs too ran a special “Travelling around the world” theme. They celebrated by having lots of walks to the beach and park, and they changed the nursery shop into a travel agents where the children ‘booked’ their very own holiday! They ‘travelled’ to Africa, France, America, China and Italy learning about different cultures and tasting different foods. Jellitotz ran a special nature theme, where children looked at the changing colours of the environment around us and had the opportunity to grow and eat their own foods. Once again they also held their special ‘Graduation Ceremony’ to say goodbye to those children who moved up to primary school. All three nurseries also participated in special events throughout the year including St Davids Day celebrations, Easter Bonnet Parade, and they all held their own special Christmas Concert.

Designed By Matthew Newbold

Carmarthenshire Youth & Children’s Association, Dewi Sant Centre, Nevill Street, Llanelli, SA15 2RS

Tel: 01554 757599 support@cycaonline.org

www.facebook.com/cycawales

Registered Charity No 512720