Next Step's philosophy:

To provide the means for a young person in care to move forward through adolescence into adulthood in a safe and supportive way.

We provide support accommodation and independence training for young care leavers of 15+, young offenders, unaccompanied minors, young parents and young adults with mental health, drugs and alcohol issues.

We work in line with Every Child Matters, the policy agenda of the Children Act 2004, in promoting its five key outcomes as part of a multi agency support network.

Neil Emerson : Bristol's New Manager

Next Step News From Around The Country

Go West Young Man!!

To Bristol

Next Step are Happy to announce Neil Emerson as Manager of Bristol

Neil has worked with young offenders and young people in a residential setting for many years and realises the need for 'after care' upon leaving a secure environment.

With support and guidance young people have a better chance of leading meaningful and purposeful lives. Working together with local authorities and agencies we have put into place a package for asylum seekers offering flexibility and educational development which will help enable a smooth less stressful integration into society.

NEWS

Northwest - Liverpool and Bolton

We are pleased to announce that Next Step are accredited providers for all the Merseyside councils plus Lancashire and Cheshire, which comes under the umbrella of GMAC. We went through an extensive audit which we passed with flying colours to gain this accreditation. We ticked all the boxes, and more.

Contact Liverpool or Bolton offices.

Out of London Manager

Julian Assirati, Manager

Julian has been with Next Step for 14 years (Outreach Worker and Manager).

For the past several years Julian has supervised and serviced the London placements from Northampton to Southampton, from Oxford to Dover, outside the M25. He had previously managed individual placements in these areas in addition to his duties in London but never coordinated them all into one team.

Together with our experienced and skilled Outreach Staff we are able to meet any placement requirements in the East Midlands, Home Counties, East Anglia and along the South Coast that you may have.

Current placements include: Northampton, Milton Keynes, Isle of Wight, Brighton, Deal, Margate, Portsmouth and Essex.

London Manager

Following on the heels of his last appearance as featured employee in our previous web- bulletin, we are very pleased to announce that David Johnson has taken up the role of Manager for Next Step London.

He will have overall responsibility for both housing and placement issues for the area.

We cover the whole of Greater London and beyond.

West Midlands and Stoke : As manager of the Stoke office, I am pleased to announced that since setting up services for Next Step in the West Midlands area since August 2005 we have witnessed a steady rise in demand for quality independence training for care leavers, asylum seekers and individuals with learning disabilities and mental health problems. We have also become providers of an escort service which supports social services in escorting young people in the West Midlands area.

In addition we have set up a crisis management training program, to equip the trainees with care and control skills, and self protection methods.

We are proud to have working with us Gail Greensmith (4^th Dan Shorin, Ju-jitsu and SIA) trained and badged along with Kevin O' Connor (8^th Dan Karate Jitsu, 6^th Dan Karate), security trained, both of whom are self defence instructors, who provide our crisis management training.

On 28^th September they completed their first in-house training session. They will provide this service to other agencies who may be interested.

Contact the Stoke office for details.

New Next Step Packages

Next Step is very pleased to announce that it can now offer shared accommodation support packages anywhere in the country.

Please contact your local Next Step area office to see if it is the right scheme for your needs.