Being Open-Minded

At Storeys we know we are always learning from the people we work with, be that care leavers, local authority staff, artist facilitators or other amazing organisations. For this reason we aim to keep an open mind when developing our projects, and continually listen and respond to the feedback of our young people and clients.

Storeys was originally developed based on a combination of insights from working with young people, care leavers and in the field of the arts. Alex’s work in a pupil referral unit (PRU) helped inform her work on Storeys. While working there she noticed that although most of the students were there because they had been excluded from school due to violent outbursts, there was no comprehensive programme for anger management or discussion around difficult emotions.

Emotional Wellbeing

Since the inception of Storeys we have had a focus on emotional health and wellbeing with care leavers. We began Storeys for a number of reasons, but one of the most important among these was the lack of emotional or holistic support available for young people leaving care. This gap in support is something that is now being widely reported on in the sector: it has been flagged in government reports, as well as by the NSPCC (Achieving Emotional Wellbeing for Looked After Children, 2015), the Centre for Social Justice (Survival of the Fittest, 2014) and many others.