Charity’s approach gains national recognition

Specialist child exploitation charity Safe and Sound has become the first in the UK to be officially recognised by a national organisation for how it works with young people.

The charity has been named as a Youth Rights Champion by the Association for Young People’s Health, which works to ensure that all young people aged 10 to 25 have the best possible health and wellbeing and equal access to high quality services.

The organisation invited Safe and Sound to participate in its new ‘We’re All Right’ right-based programme focused on young people who have experienced sexual violence.

Young people supported by Safe and Sound contributed to the development of a resource based on the rights of the child and detailing how they wanted services to be delivered using a rights-based approach, which has been embedded into the charity’s staff training and induction.

This commitment has been recognised by AYPH, which has recognised Safe and Sound as the first Youth Rights Champion under the programme.

Tracy Harrison, chief executive at Safe and Sound, said: “Young people’s views are at the heart of our work – not only to ensure they have a voice on their own lived experiences but also in how they want to be supported to help them move forward with their lives.

“We were keen to participate in AYPH’s ‘We’re All Right’ programme as it perfectly reflects our own ethos and the resources that our own young people developed are now firmly embedded into our own staff induction and training.”