Group Support

The Friends Programme

 The Friends programmes are designed by Dr Paula Barrett , an internationally recognised scholar and ground breaking researcher in the field of child psychology

The Programmes are designed to;

 ● Build resilience through social and emotional skills development.

● Empower children, families and teachers.

● Promote peer learning through play and experiential/inquiry learning

● Encourage support networks and positive role models

 Fun Friends is for children aged 4 - 7 years of age, it consists of 8-10 weekly sessions with parental involvement during all sessions. The aim of this programme is to build resilience through social and emotional skills development to empower children, families and teachers.  The Fun Friends programme will promote peer learning through play and experiential/inquiry learning and encourage support networks and positive role models.

Friends for Life is for children and young people aged 8 to 12 years of age, it consists of 8-10 weekly sessions. The Friends for Life program has been developed to assist children and young people in coping with anxiety, fear, and sadness. Friends for Life has been developed to be administered alongside educational and curriculum guidelines, and as such is complementary to school-based learning.

Friends Youth is for young people ages 13 to 17 years of age, it consists of 8-10 weekly sessions. The aim of this programme is to build social and emotional resilience in adolescents. Adolescence poses new challenges and provides completely new experiences for young people, and young people can find themselves faced with elevated expectations and increased responsibilities, higher academic workloads, increased peer pressure and more difficulties with friends.

This workshop runs for 10 x  one hour sessions and allows for up to 10 children/young people per group and is facilitated by 2 Fun Friends facilitators from The Link.