Every Child Matters

For those of you that don’t know, the aim of the Government’s “Every Child Matters” strategy is to provide children, whatever their background, with the support to ensure that they:

• be healthy
• stay safe
• enjoy and achieve
• make a positive contribution
• achieve economic well-being.

AlterEgo shares these aims - my mission in founding the company was (and, of course, still is) to help young people to build their confidence and self-esteem which in turn improves their mental health. Low self-esteem can have an incredibly detrimental effect on someone’s life and can cause many problems including depression and self-harm.

By improving confidence and self-esteem and by providing young people with as much information as possible, they are then better equipped to go out and make the best decisions for themselves and their futures as possible. Young people can often put themselves in incredibly dangerous positions – getting drunk, taking drugs or succumbing to gang culture, for example – and AlterEgo’s workshops aim to help young people to recognise more positive decisions and to believe that they have a right to make those, thus helping them to stay safe.

In turn, by making those more positive decisions and by increasing their motivation – which often comes by feeling more confident about themselves – young people automatically improve their outlooks and therefore their economic well-being.

AlterEgo’s courses and workshops all use music, film and celebrity culture to engage young people in ways to which they can relate. This creates an enjoyable lesson in which everyone can take part and everyone can understand the messages being put across…but without having to talk about personal circumstances at any point.

Once a young person has had time to work through their goals and ambitions and to understand some of the issues they are facing in such a different approach, they often re-engage with their education and hopefully achieve more from their GCSE’s. That in itself is a positive contribution as according to the government, those not in employment, education or training at age 16 cost upward of £96,000.

So whilst a school or organisation might need to spend £295 now, the savings that they make later on health, crime and unemployment are enormous. Perhaps I should put my prices up?!

If you'd like more information on AlterEgo's workshops or courses, please visit the website - www.alteregocoaching.co.uk - or call 0845 050 7922.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Suzannah Wallace
AlterEgo - Inspiring and Motivating Young People
www.alteregocoaching.co.uk
Raising Confidence and Self-Esteem and Building Aspirations