ENGAGEMENT – THE MENTOR

Intensive Support has extensive experience working with children and young people on statutory orders including justice, child protection and out-of-home care who present with significant risk factors and high-risk behaviours.

Intensive Support staff have the following qualities to best support the child or young person:

• Compassion, kindness and understanding to connect
• Strength and patience to facilitate robust support and focused learning
• Calm to support the Young Person through crisis and ‘tough times’
• Communication skills to help the young person mitigate risk and develop capacity
• Commitment and resilience to continue until the young person succeeds

The Intensive Support team have rich and developed understanding of the plans to be made, risk factors to address, capacities to build, skills to develop, barriers to overcome, problems to deal with, crisis to overcome, beliefs/feelings/attitudes to change, and goals to achieve in order to support the young person to overcome risk of harm or problem behaviours.

The engagement strategies implemented by the team to attract the young person to the program and maintain participation include:

• The development of a positive role model relationship based upon empathy and respect
• The application of adventure, recreation and athletic activities
• A continued focus upon the positive expectation of a good life
• Compassionate, warm, and trustworthy Mentors and support workers who care about the young person

The program identifies the young person as the chief agent of change, the single most important factor in planning and most influential contributor to a successful outcome. The Young Person is the centre of the program at all times.