Our impact on youth
We are a social welfare agency for adults, but many people don’t realise how much we do to help young people in times of need. Our services have a huge and direct impact on the lives of thousands of young people. We are very proud of that.
BACKING THEIR EDUCATION
The nervous single mum, Kate, arrived at our offices for her assessment. She had come to the Mission asking for help in getting a school uniform and shoes for her son who was starting high school. This was a struggling family which was trying to get ahead and needed a little help to keep that going. Kate had studied, gained a qualification and a part-time job but she was in debt which included a student loan.
The family lived in a Kainga Ora home, and Kate couldn’t pay the power bill and the problems were spiraling. The City Mission helped her with a food parcel from the foodbank, some financial advice – but another important way we helped was to make sure her son got to go to his new school as an equal with others, in the correct uniform that he could wear with pride. We helped out with the cost of his uniform, shoes and stationery which could have cost her over $900. These were costs that would have crippled her family, who also had two other children, but our vouchers made this purchase achievable.
Our social worker said: “Kate was incredibly thankful, very gracious, very humble. She was making every effort to pay off her debts and she left deeply relieved.” Our Back to School Programme helped 189 families in 2023 by providing 268 uniforms to local children.
Children should not grow up in families who are worried about how to feed them. We fed thousands of children in 2023.
FOODBANK SERVICES
It is hard to imagine kids going hungry in Canterbury, but it is a real and regular occurrence. Our foodbank is on the frontline of helping refill family cupboards.
On a daily basis, the biggest group of young people we help are those who belong to families who have come to us in a crisis seeking food support. When families come to us for food they are interviewed and assessed for need by our foodbank team. Part of that assessment includes asking about family size and children. While the children don’t necessarily come to our buildings, we know they are benefiting from the support we give their parents.
Our assessment data reveals that 40% of people our foodbank fed in 2023 were children aged 0-17. A third were children aged 12 and under. The impact of our help to children through our foodbank is best understood if we consider what life would be like for families without the food support from the City Mission.
Imagine 25,000 children not getting the 305,000 meals our foodbank supplied in 2023? This is amazing impact that we can only do with the help of those who support us with money, food and volunteering of their time.
ADDICTION AND MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
Our three expert youth addiction and mental health counsellors offer an amazing free service for young Canterbury people at our Hereford Street site. These counsellors are trained in techniques such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, Deep Brain Reorienting Therapy to help young people manage their problems.
Most are referred to us from a central hub, which assesses the young people first to find the best place and people to help them. Others come from referrals from GPs, schools and even peer referrals. Because we are experienced in helping people with addictions, we are a logical place to come for support. We handle everything from mental health, addiction and combined mental health and addiction issues.
The number of referrals our counsellors can take are limited by our available staffing resources. In 2023 415 young people aged 13 to 24 came to us for help. We believe that problems like anxiety, depression and addiction are best caught early and when dealt with early we have the best opportunity to get people back on track.