Together for Childhood

Our Together for Childhood service works with local communities across the country to help make them safer for children. We caught up with Dianne Porter, Development and Impact Manager for Together for Childhood, to learn more.

Hi Dianne! How would you describe Together for Childhood to someone new?

Together for Childhood is based in four different parts of the UK at the moment. All the work that we do is being evaluated and measured, with the hope that we can expand to more areas of the UK. But right now, I work in Govan managing the Glasgow service, and we also run in Plymouth, Grimsby, and Stoke-on-Trent.

Each of us works with our local community – professionals, parents, young people –who live here and know what the gaps in local services are. That way, we can find out what the community needs, and if there are any services we can create or improve to make life better for children.

So what needs did you find in Glasgow for example?

One need we found was about emotional literacy for children and young people, especially after COVID. I feel like we were all a bit shaken by COVID to be honest, but that was especially true for young people in Govan.

We all want children to talk about how they’re feeling, but when they don’t understand their feelings, or how to find people who are safe to talk to, it becomes very difficult.

So that’s why we started running emotional resilience groups in primary schools.

It was a six-week programme, which we developed with teachers, and it taught children to identify big feelings, small feelings, the feelings in their body – so they could start naming and talking about them.

After that, we introduced mindfulness, breathing techniques, and coping strategies that they can use when they’re on their own. And we gave them Emotional Resilience Kits – with blankets, colouring books, hot chocolate and games to play with friends.

Are those workshops still running today?

Yes – something that’s really important at Together for Childhood is that anything we set up, we make it sustainable, so that it can continue running without us.

So after we’d run our six week programme in seven primary schools in Govan, we taught them how to go out and deliver some of that to other schools, and it all just keeps on going.

We’ve found that lots of children love to stay involved too – some of them have even asked to teach mindfulness classes to the other year groups. They’re loving it, they’re probably doing it almost as well as the practitioners!

After our workshops, children said:

“ Thanks for the awesome 6 weeks with us!”

“ You have been the best, thank you for coming and helping us to learn.”

“Every time we see you we smile, thank you so so so much.”

What’s the best part of your job?

I think what I really love doing is meeting the needs of more than just a couple of children or a couple of families, but lots and lots. It’s my job to really embed our service in the community and understand it. So, no two days are the same, really.

I get to work with brilliant practitioners, social workers, teachers, take our learnings and think, ‘Okay, how can we develop this or make it better?’ It’s a real privilege to do that.

And when people tell us that the stuff we’re doing is working, that’s just brilliant. We recently had this mum who told us about the mindfulness techniques her wee one was doing at home when he was struggling. That’s maybe the greatest part of my job, to hear stories like that.