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Events

Children’s Mental Wellbeing Week – Growing Together

7th – 13th February

We were pleased to learn that this week’s Children’s Mental Wellbeing Week theme was “Growing Together” as this perfectly reflects the work that Ascent Fostering and our carers aspire to achieve with all the children who come into our care.

It’s been a really challenging time for children over the last couple of years, with the covid pandemic changing their routines and stability. More time being spent at home has, in some cases put children under an enormous strain and stress, and potential danger. Social Media continues to bring its’s own challenges, managing our children’s access to disturbing content and images remains a constant battle.

We support our foster carers and children with a number of activities and training that really focuses on growing together. Our Sensory and Nurturing attachments courses are great examples of this, as we give our carers the tools to understand when children are finding situations overwhelming and how they can regulate their behaviour.

We’d like to share “Maria’s Story” an example of how we grow with our carers and children.

Maria’s Story highlights that strong consistent parenting support can have a positive impact on young people. The community is also extremely important in the journey, Ascent is pleased to partner with a local charity Reaching Higher with offers a number of programmes that challenges young people to be leaders of their own lives.

For more information on Children’s Mental Wellbeing Week and how you can get involved visit

https://www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk/get-involved/

If you live in South London and would like to find out more about becoming a foster carer and giving children who have had a challenging start in life a safe and loving home, please give us a call on 0203 757 0070 we’d love to hear from you.

Ascent 2021 Round Up

Here is  the Ascent Fostering 2021 Round Up. It’s that time of year again, I can’t believe we are already in 2022!

It’s been an eventful 2021 for us here at Ascent Fostering Agency, with some extremely exciting changes and updates that took us into 2022, As always we strive to be constant innovators within our field, which brings us to the exciting announcement that we are expanding our services with the opening of Aspen House, a residential home for boys aged 11-15.

Ascent Children Services will now serve as the umbrella company that encompasses Ascent Fostering Agency and Ascent Family homes. As always we are committed to a therapeutic approach, to build strong relationships, establish ourselves within the community and give young people the skills and strategies to cope in their world. Our vision is to see Ascent grow into an organisation that is known for supporting young people in reaching their full potential.

Head over to the website to learn more about our newest venture:

www.ascentchildrenservices.co.uk

So much went on in 2021 and we want to share with you what happened:

Ascent has a commitment to learning so we ensure that our staff and carers are fully equipped to support our young people and give them the best care. This year we delivered new training courses such as:

The Just Right State Programme

This training gave foster parents an insight into how to regulate their child from sensory and attachment perspectives. They learnt about; the different levels of self- regulation (physiological, sensory, emotional, and cognitive); the regulating effects of food and activities; and how to create an enriched environment that is tailor made both for you and your child’s sensory-attachment needs.

Creative techniques for communicating with children

This workshop looked at the principles underlying art therapy and how you can use creativity to support the mental health, emotional wellbeing, and resilience of the children you care for. It also explored building and strengthening your relationship with your young people. Sharing how you explore how you can harness the interests, culture, and inherent creativity of children to support them to make sense of themselves and their world.

We also have some exciting new courses that will be introduced in 2022:

Girls Group

Trudy Darien will be facilitating a 2-day course to explore the disadvantages faced by girls and young women in society with an emphasis on the vulnerability of girls and young women in the care system.

  • To further reflect on the unmet needs of girls and young women in our care.
  • To understand these needs in the context of Trauma
  • To develop our understanding of cycles of abuse and dependency
  • To develop a strategies of support

We also had the pleasure of welcoming new carers into the Ascent family, they included Marlene and Patricia as well as saying hello to new team members Cheyenne, Supervising Social Worker and Diana Finance Manager. They have been a wonderful extension to the team and we are grateful to have them.

This year we welcomed another cohort of students; Tatum, Keilly, Abigael and Melissa.

With hellos, there were also some goodbyes. We were sad to say goodbye to Remi and Chantelle who were fantastic members of the team and who will be greatly missed but we wish them the very best on their new career journeys and can’t wait to see all they achieve.

As the Covid restrictions began to lift it meant we could get together again and go on Ascent days out.

In April, the sun shone brightly as we headed out to the South Bank for a stroll and took a river boat down to Greenwich for lunch.

In August, we took the whole Ascent family to the seaside for a day out in Southend. There was fun and games on the beach followed by a fish and chip lunch (because what’s a day at the seaside without a classic fish and chips).

Before we headed back to school in August we held our first annual Ascent Fest, lots of families joined us for a picnic in the park with rounders, tug of wars and plenty of arts and crafts.

Earlier this month Sita organised a great evening out for our young people to see the London Lions basketball team take on the Manchester Giants at the Copperbox arena –  The Lions smashed it beating rivals 107- 80.

Even with the unrest and uncertainty of Covid, we still have been able to have an eventful year. As always we remain vigilant about the pandemic and ensure that we operate a safe environment in line with the government guidelines.

We want to thank all our team members, foster carers, trainers and those who work with Ascent for all their continued support and hard work and we look forward to what 2022 has to bring.

Until next year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Anti-bullying week

Anti Bullying

Let’s stamp out bullying!

Bullying, unfortunately, is something that many of us have faced or are even still facing today. And bullying is something that many children and young people face on a daily basis.

With the pace of life moving so rapidly, and new trends coming and going, it also means that bullying has taken on a new shape and form. No longer does bullying stop and start within the school gates, but more than ever we see bullying continuing once the school day is over due to the popular rise of the internet and social media. 

The internet has made it harder than ever for this generation to navigate through adolescence. There is never a moment where they truly get to switch off from technology, which opens the door for bullying to take place.

From comment sections, private messaging, public picture sharing, live video streaming and gaming forums there are so many outlets where children and young people can be exposed, leaving them more vulnerable to being bullied.

Anti Bullying Week aims to bring awareness to bullying, encouraging children, parents and teachers to take action against bullying throughout the year with this year’s theme celebrating differences and equality. 

So how can we help to stamp out bullying? What are some of the small everyday things we can all do to prevent bullying from beginning?

Firstly, look for the bully. Yes, this may sound like a weird request. But ever heard of the saying ‘Go straight to the source’? Giving attention and time to understand why someone may be bullying somebody is a great start to addressing the root of the problem. It is very common to want to condemn the bully and isolate them due to their bullying but if we actually talk to them  and understand the reasons why they may be lashing out, it could potentially remove the root of the issue.

Secondly, having an understanding of the apps and websites that your child uses daily is useful when being able to spot signs whether bullying may be taking place. By showing a genuine interest in what your child is interested in, they will become more willing to share just how these apps work and what they get up to on them. Some good leading questions would be “Do you talk to your school friends here?”, “How does the app/website/game work?” and  “Do you know everyone you speak to?”. If you notice that sometimes your child could be withdrawn after coming off their phone or computer, or lock themselves away in their room when coming home from school it may be a sign that they are experiencing cyberbullying.

Listen. It’s so important for a young person to feel like they are being heard, and acknowledged during a time like this. If somebody feels as if they are being bullied it should be investigated thoroughly and they should feel supported throughout.

Bullying is not something that we will be able to drive out overnight. But by highlighting that bullying does exist and not being afraid to talk about it allows us to start taking action earlier.

To find out more about Anti Bullying Week, click here

Ascent 7th Birthday

Ascent 7th Birthday - Ascent Fostering Agency

Earlier this year we celebrated our 7th birthday! And although we had to adjust the way we celebrated due to our current circumstances we still made sure that the whole Ascent family was still able to mark this milestone.

Ascent first launched in April 2013, founded by Mark Pomell and Mark Hobbs with the goal for Ascent Fostering Agency to be the leading therapeutic fostering agency in London in-terms of the quality of support, care and outcomes for the young people we look after. To offer foster carers the opportunity to be part of a genuine team, that is committed to learning and developing our skills together.

Over the last 7 years, we have reached some major milestones; receiving fantastic Ofsted reports, winning several awards, seeing our team grow and expand, working with outstanding foster carers, and seeing how our carers have impacted the lives of so many children and young people.

We would have never thought that at the beginning of this journey we would be where we are now and have so many people to thank for helping us get here.

Since 2013 we have;

  • Increased our team of staff from 3 to 11.
  • Held over 500 training sessions.
  • Looked after 158 children and young people.
  • We began with 4 carers and now have over 30.
  • Been a finalist in the Investors in People Gold – Award of the Year for Small Companies in the UK 2018.
  • Awarded an Investors in People in 2015.
  • 3 Ofsted inspections
  • Received the award for Resilience and Placement Stability to Children from Wandsworth Local Authority.

Check out the special video we created especially for our birthday.

We can’t wait to see what the next 7 years hold, cheers to many more!

Love Ascent

To find out more about fostering with us, get in touch with one of our friendly team today. 

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