Trust for the Study of Adolescence (TSA)
Key Facts
Location
Project Criteria
Project funding
£265,976
Funding round
TSA is a charity founded in 1989 to help improve the lives of young people and families. Our work is derived from the belief that there is a lack of knowledge and understanding about adolescence and young adulthood. We are trying to close this gap through:
- research
- training for professionals and parents
- publications for parents, professionals and young people
- influencing policy makers, service providers and public opinion.
Our Parenting Fund project is called 'Voluntary sector support for parents of teenagers' and has four aims. These are:
- To assess different structures for the delivery of services for children and families across England, and to consider ways in which these structures facilitate support for parents of teenagers.
- To offer an innovative and model training programme in three localities that develops skills in the voluntary sector for supporting the parents of teenagers.
- To assess the impact of the training and consequent service delivery in each of the three areas.
- To disseminate the learning from the project widely to ensure long-term strengthening of sector infrastructure.
The first stage of the work will involve telephone and face-to-face interviews with service providers and representatives from Parenting Forums across the country. Following this we will work with voluntary sector agencies to identify the three areas for the training programme. Some or all of these will be among the 18 Parenting Fund areas. The training programme will emphasise coaching and mentoring for the participants to ensure a high quality of delivery and output.
In evaluating the project, we will be focussing on the impact on voluntary agencies receiving the training as well as the impact on the parents who receive support services. The evaluation will be conducted by an independent research organisation, and the learning from the project will be disseminated through publications and a series of seminars and workshops held in all Government regions. We expect the project to contribute to the development of a national infrastructure for supporting teenagers by creating an accredited or validated training programme. It will also increase parenting provision by running the training programme in three localities.