Let’s Talk

Let’s Talk gives parents information about some of the risks our young people face along with tips and techniques they can use to help keep their children and young people safe.

A welcome message from the chair of our board, Becca Hewitt.

Let’s Talk about creating safer communities

We have developed Let’s Talk to make sure parents and carers have the most up to date information about the risks in their communities, whilst providing tips to help them support their children and young people. It is an increasingly complex word and parenting can be really tricky, Let’s Talk helps build on communication and support between children and young people and their families to help keep them safe. You will also find links to further sources of support and information if you have concerns.

Our mission is to equip parents and carers with the knowledge and techniques to support their young people and to identify when they need the support of specialist services and how to access that support.

The Let’s Talk journey

The Let’s Talk journey started when South Devon and Dartmoor Community Safety Partnership commissioned sessions for parent support groups developed to address gang activity in our communities. The input was mostly around raising awareness of parents on domestic abuse, healthy relationships and challenging negativity towards females providing guidance on how to address these issues with their children. The value of the work was clear so a toolkit was commissioned which covered this information to reach a wider audience.

Significant research was undertaken by Safety and Resilience Consultancy to develop the toolkit and it was reviewed and endorsed by many different agencies including Educational Psychologists.

During the COVID Pandemic the Let’s Talk sessions were then taken online and delivered through Microsoft TEAMS and the engagement to date has demonstrated that the concept and approach is accessible and beneficial for parents and carers.

The approach was in response to there being a huge amount of information available to parents but them not always knowing what to look for. Parenting can be very challenging and can leave parents feeling isolated as reaching out for help in seen can be seen as acknowledging that they are not good enough parents, we aim to change this view. By reducing the knowledge gap between parents and young people we hope to increase understanding of the context that children and young people are living in.

Children and Young people are growing up in a continually changing culture which requires high levels of confidence for children and young people to be able to challenge the norms set by that culture which are often not understood by parents due to the significant culture change between generations with social media now a massive part of children and young people’s daily lives.

We aim to provide solutions with an emphasis on tips and techniques for parents to help support and communicate with their young person. Whilst we make it clear that some of the ‘flags’ we share in relation to risk can also be signs of normal teenage development that if there is rapid change or a number of flags are seen that the parents may want to go to seek further support, so links are provided to trusted sources of specialist support.

The programme aims to increase the resilience of our families in or community and change the perception the wider community can have about what they consider to be failing parents.

Parents are part of the solution

We see delivery by agencies in response to risk which does not engage families in resolving the concerns. We believe we are more likely to get sustained outcomes when parents and carers are informed of the risk and feel empowered to make a difference.

Support not judgement

So many times we hear the question “What are the parents doing about it?”. We believe in order for parents and carers to do something they need to, not only have an understanding of the issues and implications, but also be guided in how they can “do something about it”. We want to work with parents as equals.

Every parent wants their children and young people to thrive

We believe that parenting can be really challenging and that caring for a child or young person can be massively impacted by parents and carers own experience of trauma, shame and the complexities of modern life including poverty, abuse and health challenges. We also believe that every parent and carer wants the best for their children and young people but they may not, at that time, have the knowledge, skills or capacity to be able to offer as much support and guidance as other may feel they should.

Intervention at the earliest possible opportunity

The best chance of achieving positive sustainable outcomes is by establishing good communication, trust and healthy behaviours as early as possible for both the parents and the children and young people.

Promote appropriate risk

Children and young people learn from taking risks and learning from their experiences, this programme aims to give parents and carers the confidence to understand when risks become concerning and when to get advice for help, rather than encouraging parent and carers to shield their children and young people from experiences.

Awareness and empowered not filled with fear

This programme covers topics that can be very scary to parents and carers so it is essential that we make every effort to ensure that information is shared in a way that provides information to increase awareness and empower people to be able to address the concerns rather than just create a culture of fear and helplessness

Reinforcement of core values – love and communication

The programme is made up of different sessions targeted at different ages and covering different topics, we ensure that keeping communication and love at the heart of families is reinforced through all of our messaging.