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Services for Young People

R² Services for Young People aims to enable Journeys (Routes). Journeys that will lay foundations (Roots) for learning: building on strengths, developing resilience and promoting agency that will allow a young person to participate in and belong to the wider community.

These Routes (R) and Roots (R) are the essence of R² Services for Young People

R² Services for Young People is an innovative and creative community-based organisation based in London, established to create and develop partnerships, projects and provisions for young people up to the age of 25 years, from all backgrounds, who are at risk of underachievement, social exclusion, marginalization and/or other poor sociaI outcomes. We also offer consultancy, advisory work and training for individuals, organisations and services to help inform others about the R2 approach - an approach informed by an awareness that building of relationships, the development of trust and the need for agency are at the core of all opportunities for change.

Our aim is to work alongside existing services both within the public sector as well as the community and voluntary sector, in order to develop projects and new ways to working that will offer creative approaches for meeting the needs of young people who may have struggled, for whatever reason, within mainstream educational services.

At the heart of our work is a belief in the young person; in their potential to achieve. We aim to help young people reclaim some of the lost time from previous experiences that have left them feeling isolated and marginalized , and enable them to have the belief that they have something valuable to offer.

But for a young person to be able to have this belief, to have some hope, they need to be able to trust. Underpinning our approach is an awareness that it is "all about relationships". It is through relationships we can experience and develop trust, and by being supported to have a degree of agency and autonomy, then hope and belief can evolve.

Why R² ?

R² Services for Young People appreciates that there may be many reasons why a young person might find themselves in a position of marginalisation or social exclusion.

For example, there are occasions when specific needs may not have been recognised or addressed in their earlier, developing years.

This could have led to a disengagement from the more formalised educational curriculum.

Whatever the origin of their needs, our work is about discovering and acknowledging the strengths a young person may have as well as being able to clarify some of their difficulties that have resulted in the young person being where they are today.

By building on their strengths, and finding ways of building resilience to allow them to feel able to overcome their difficulties, we can start thinking together about how to face the journey ahead.

Working alongside the public sector

Many young people slip through the net of statutory services. These services work incredibly hard to address the needs of the majority, and yet there are still many for whom these services are not available, not accessible or simply not enough.

Subsequently we don’t see R² Services for Young People as an organisation that is in competition with the local statutory services, but rather as a team that can complement much of their practice.

With the opportunities made available by legislation over the last decade we believe that there is now room for a service that can work “within the gaps” that are inevitably going to occur when any statutory service is offered to such wide and diverse populations. Perhaps these gaps may even widen given the current economic climate.

As a social enterprise (CIC) we will bring a bespoke service to commissioners’ requirements both within the local authority and the health sector (NHS and GP consortia).

With a public sector value base, together with business expertise we understand the importance of supporting and working with local services in partnership; helping improve provision for the wider community.

At the same time, however, we appreciate that we will be delivering high quality services, and that these services will also be excellent value for money.