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What is the Real Me Project?

The Real Me Project is a Teesside-wide project that supports young adults aged 17-25 who are involved in the criminal justice system, who want to make positive changes in the transitions stage. This can be at any point of their journey, from those engaging with out of court disposals, to those working towards a release from custody back into the community.

How Does It Work?

The interventions and work completed with young people centre on participants own driven goals, and support is provided to meet both practical and holistic needs. Time is taken to understand that participants are more than just their offending behaviour – we seek to understand the ‘real’ person’s goals, support them in taking responsibility for their actions, and find what really motivates them to move towards a pro-social future.

Interventions are flexible and of a wide variety, from supporting young people in sourcing and accessing Education and Training opportunities, to providing them with opportunities to give back to the community through creative social action. Participants meet with their Real Me Practitioner’s at times, dates, and frequencies that work best for them – the non-statutory nature of support means we can work alongside statutory services, but work outside the box in our approach.

We work closely with partner agencies involved in the support of our young adults, to compliment the work of statutory agencies including Youth Justice Services, Probation, and Police. Through the option of joint visits, one to one appointments, and connecting participants with agencies providing group work, we develop SMART goal plans to work towards personalised goals, and tailor sessions to whatever the primary needs of participants are. This can include relationship building with young people and helping to support them when they transition from children’s Youth Justice Services to adult Probation, and facilitating initial meetings with secondary agencies through supporting access to external support. In providing support outside of statutory restrictions our approach is uniquely needs driven, working towards the reintegration of participants into their communities. This restorative approach is prevalent in all work that we do.

Examples of our interventions

Sourcing adult learning opportunities and linking participants up with paid industry-led training
Support in transitioning from Youth to Adult Services
Navigating housing and homeless applications
Facilitating contributions to local community art exhibition and volunteering opportunities
Reflective exercises on ‘Letter to my younger self’ to develop peer mentor resources
Trauma-informed visualisation techniques for developing healthy coping strategies
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