Being a young care leaver, estranged from your family or being at risk of homelessness are some of the tough challenges that many young people face.
The stress and worry of these life circumstances can have a catastrophic effect on a person’s development and prospects. Without a stable grounding, many people find themselves without an education, with low self-esteem and few friendship groups to connect with.
The Sunflower Lounge in Neath Port Talbot works with many people in these circumstances from the age of 18 onwards, offering them support into further education and employment. It’s the first support network of its kind in the area where young people can gain valuable skills to better equip them for their future.
Working to create in-house employment opportunities, they devise projects with care at the heart of them, making sure that others in the community benefit. The team of volunteers at the Sunflower Lounge offer young people project-based roles to develop key skills but have struggled to fully deliver their objectives because of a poor internet connection.
Thanks to the social value offering from Virgin Media O2 as part of the Dark Fibre East project, the Sunflower Lounge has now been given free fibre broadband for the next five years, which has allowed them to take their work to the next level.
Since being connected, the centre has been able to train their whole team as digital champions, so that they can use their digital skills to not only manage their projects, but to interact more with other sectors of the community who’d benefit from accessing the internet.
Helen Davies, Founder of The Sunflower Lounge said:
What we do here is a lifeline for those who’ve had a challenging upbringing. It’s sometimes hard to comprehend what it’s like to be in a position where you’re left to face the world without the very basic of skills. It’s a scary situation and one that can have a detrimental effect on a person’s future. Getting online to access programmes, tools and services has been a massive hindrance to us as a large part of what we do is digital. We’re also moving into housing support so that we can directly help those who are homeless. Having the most effective online methods of managing this is integral to our success. We can now not only offer young people homes but also provide employment that feeds back into the organisation. None of this would have been possible using our previous internet connection as it would go down regularly. Now, we can move forward in confidence and grow and assist even more people in the Neath Port Talbot community, helping them build a better future for themselves and others.Helen Davies, The Sunflower Lounge
One of these projects called ‘Through the Ages’ provides interactive tea party experiences for the elderly to help them connect, reflect and reminisce on different past eras.
Helping to deliver this project is James who has been attending The Sunflower Lounge for four years. As a young care leaver , he missed the majority of his school years and left education with few skills to enable him to secure employment. James said:
"I’ve learnt so much about organising events such as these. From researching the era, to creating online documents through to creating invitations with online tools. Something I’d never have achieved before."
The benefits of having better connectivity has also given the Sunflower Lounge more opportunities to promote their work and raise their profile. They now have a regular newsletter, social media accounts and an online shop, making it easier for more people to get involved.
