Young People Asking For Help
Our promise is to help young people to have better life experiences, better life chances and better wellbeing
If you’re reading this, it’s because someone you know thinks that Up2Us might be able to help you. We’re a charity that supports young people through difficult times in their lives. That means we help young people because we want to, not for money or profit. We help both young men and women who come to us through health or social work services (see Requesting a service). We also have a funded project called Time for Change which allows young women to come to us themselves because they are a young adult and don’t have support from any other agency. This service is free of charge to young women who are caught up in problems with the law and who need help to turn a corner. Time for Change can support up to 45 young women every year. If you’re a young woman moving out of secure accommodation or prison we can help, even if you’ve moved on already and need help with other things. We will find you a worker you get on with who can help with a whole lot of things like: somewhere to stay, a job, a lawyer, or help you with benefits and money, your health or learning. We will listen if you need to talk things through and we will always be honest and reliable. We won’t ask you to pay anything for our help because we’re a charity.
If you think this type of support might help you right now, you can look at the information we will need in the Asking for Help form and phone us and we can help to fill the form in for you. If we’re not the right service for you, we will tell you and we might be able to recommend other people who can help.
Telephone: 01355 263358
Download your welcome booklet below
What Young People Say
What are the main things Up2Us supports you with?
“A bit of everything I’d say – literally everything. Any daily issues, any issues I’ve got at all – housing, benefits, family, sometimes just need a chat”
“Eh mainly my mental health just now but in the past it was my re-offending. Just trying to stay out of it and that’s four and a half years clear of it now”
“Main things Up2Us have supported me with is helping me with different situations like at school or at home they help calm the situation down. They give me great opinions, so even if it’s opinions I don’t agree with, I take it in,”
“I don’t know how many times I’ve been homeless and they’ve supported me. They don’t leave till you have somewhere and they fight your corner”
What for you are the best things about the Up2Us?
- “it disnae matter what happens – I’ll still always have support, even if I’m hard work” (laughs)
- “Yous have kept me alive so far that’s wan best bit aboot it, like if it wisnae fur yous, I probably wid be deid by noo “
- “I don’t even know what the best thing is, there’s lots of stuff, it’s like I’ve just said it’s just somebody else there that you can talk to if you’re having a tough time you can talk to them”
- “the advice I get from people in Up2Us so to me Up2Us is a vital part of my life for the past year”“it’s a great environment, it’s the best support group out there, in my opinion, great people, great advice, we’ve come up with great ideas,”
If Up2Us didn’t visit you-how do you think you would feel?
“Lost – Honestly, I would be lost. I would be lost without yous. Ah don’t have ma parents, so see ma worker, that’s the way she’s been for me. And other staff as well, even the new wan all three of them. I see yous like family, cause yous have always been there for me.”
“it would be hard, like, I don’t know, like it would be hard to keep going the way I’ve been going, and I would lose belief in myself. Up2Us has been good at making me believe in myself.”
What do you think you get out of your time with Up2Us?
“I feel happier, I feel lighter like cause I talk to her and stuff and I like talking to her cause she’s dead caring and stuff and it’s nice talking to somebody that you can tell actually cares fur a chinge.”
“Like, I feel less stressed after it cause if I’ve had a build up of something, I’ve got somebody that I can just offload to. Cause I know that there’s naebody else that can like listen in”
“I get emotional support as well as actual physical support an just someone to vent to about stuff cause sometimes I’m not always looking for a solution or a quick fix I just need someone that I can just get it all out in the open to and off my chest and I know if I tell them something confidential it’ll stay that way.”“Well when my mum passed away, ma worker supported me really well, an everyone helped me in the hospital an things like that and didn’t just leave me, and I sat for a good few hours just sitting crying and ma worker was fine with me she took me all the way back to Cumbernauld and made sure I was ok and things like that”
If Up2Us didn’t exist who would you turn to for support?
“I literally wouldn’t know who to turn to. I actually don’t know. I don’t have much family”
“I’ve worked with my worker for years, so I’ve got quite a close bond with her rather than working with a complete stranger then you don’t tell them anything cause you don’t trust them.”
Do you think there will be a time when you feel ready to move on from working with Up2Us?
“No. I’ve just worked with them for so long I guess, they’re just part of my family guess, obviously they’re no really, it’s in a different kind of family, and giving that up no”.
“Yeah, as much as I would hate it, it would be a massive difference but there will be a time that I will be ready to just move on but I wouldn’t know until I was ready “
So can I ask. Have they helped you with offending?
“well put it this way, I haven’t had a charge since before I got out of St. Philips so that’s been well over a year now ehm, and before that I was getting arrested every day. So if that’s not a sign that they’re doing their jobs right then I don’t really know what is.”
Can you tell me about a time when you think we could have done more, or you felt let down by Up2Us?
“I genuinely can’t think of any times when there’s not been enough support it’s been really really helpful and as I’ve said, I genuinely don’t know where I’d be or what I’d be without Up2Us cause it’s been so helpful”
Is there anything else you would like to say about Up2Us?
“Just if it wisnae for them, I wouldn’t be where I am now. I would probably still be in and out of prison cause if I never had that support I would still be drinking right now and I’d probably be addicted to alcohol.”
“Up2us is a fantastic group, great people ehm they’ve made me into the lively person I am today, they’ve helped build up my confidence, my communication skills they’ve taught me that there’s always going to be someone I can rely on.”