A youth work team which provides 16 of the region’s secondary schools with mental health support has won a national award.
The Youth Information in Schools Project won the Health and Wellbeing category.
The National Youth Work Awards are run by YouthLink Scotland.
The winning project is a partnership between Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Youth Work Service and Educational Psychology.
Information workers deliver low level mental health support to young people aged 12–18 across all 16 local authority secondary schools through one-to-one and group work programmes.
The psychological support provided through the project aims to help young people learn strategies that can help them to cope with the challenges they are encountering in their lives.
This is often a first point of contact for young people who are going through difficulties and depending on their needs, can lead to them being referred for more specialist support.
However, after these sessions, the young people have often developed the skills and coping strategies to deal with the challenges they are facing.
Councillor Ian Blake, chairman of the communities committee, said: “The Youth Information in Schools Project is a very worthy winner of this national award.
“The staff are dedicated and passionate about the work that they do, and they have made a significant impact on hundreds of young people’s lives in our region since 2020.”
“The impact of this project on the young people who access it is huge. They have said through taking part, they feel a lot happier in themselves and are able to use the skills to develop independence in problem solving and making decisions.”
