Our mission is to create brighter futures for children and young people. We do this by providing fostering, residential and support services where children and young people can feel safe and cared for. We support them to make positive relationships which give them the confidence to succeed.
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Our vision is for every child and young person to be safe, loved and happy, to achieve their potential and have a bright future.
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All our services have the same goal: to support children and young people to fulfil their potential, grow into independent adults and have happy, successful futures.
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There are many ways you can support St Christopher's work with children and young people. Find out how you can help young people reach their goals.
Social pedagogy
What is social pedagogy?
Social pedagogy is St Christopher’s core philosophy of care. Put simply, this is a holistic approach that centres around building positive relationships with young people to bring out their full potential and find their “inner diamond”.
We have been evolving our use of social pedagogy over a number of years – from developing homes using a socially pedagogic approach to training staff and foster carers across all of our services. Now, we are experts in using this approach in a variety of children’s social care settings.
'Staff have always been there. They don't take stuff personal and just keep trying to show me how I am good and help me achieve stuff.'
How does social pedagogy work?
Our practice is based on the head, heart and hands approach:
Head
We learn and develop as equals alongside our young people. Our understanding of attachment theory and therapeutic ways of working mean we can design bespoke care plans for every young person we work with.
Heart
We use our emotional intelligence and relational skills in our reflective practice to help us develop relationships with young people, their families and our colleagues. Young people say that staff now understand them better, which means they can trust them more.
Hands
Creative, practical activities empower young people to learn, develop and heal from previous trauma. Young people are allowed to do things for themselves and learn from the experience, even if that means making mistakes along the way.
'The staff have been really good at building a relationship with him and supporting him. They worked really hard at engaging him; it wasn't easy but they stuck with it.'