Spark Inside is partnering with Youth Offending Services in two London boroughs to deliver a tailored life coaching intervention to young people recently released from custody, or those at risk of entering custody.
The new service is a unique collaboration between Spark Inside, the Lewisham Youth Offending Service, and the Southwark Youth Offending Service. Clients will receive tailored one to one support from Spark Inside’s expert life coaches through its Hero’s Journey™ programme, and will benefit from improved decision-making skills, improved empathy, and improved wellbeing.
It will make use of innovative digital approaches to overcome any practical barriers to delivering face-to-face interventions. Clients will be given the opportunity to choose a preferred coach from a number of options, increasing their agency and allowing them to benefit from the positive effects of a genuinely bespoke intervention that places the client at the heart of the process.
The service also reflects Spark Inside’s commitment to pivoting its services in response to the particular challenges of Covid-19, including the ongoing restrictions on rehabilitative and educational provision inside prisons.
Commenting on the new service, Andrew Hillas, Head of the Youth Offending Service in Southwark, said:
“We believe the new service has excellent potential to enable positive change and help our young people to flourish. We’re particularly pleased that Spark Inside’s expert life coaching programme is flexible enough to respond to the developmental maturity of our young people, and it’s also critical that clients continue to be supported even when they are no longer eligible for support from a particular statutory provider.”
Lilian Flynn, Spark Inside life coach, said:
“We’re hugely excited to have the opportunity to deliver life coaching to young people in London as they navigate an incredibly challenging environment. Spark Inside’s Hero’s Journey programme allows clients the space to reflect, identify their own goals, and make changes that last — it’s powerful stuff!”