ENTHUM HOUSE - UK
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Millions of unaccompanied refugee children are currently on the move worldwide. Many have suffered persecution, violence and war in their home countries. Those who make it to a European country have to face the complex challenges of asylum claims, cultural integration and often Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, without the help of their parents.
Enthum House was inspired by the work that its founders carried out volunteering, campaigning and fundraising for unaccompanied minors in the Calais Jungle. It offers a safe and supportive home for up to seven unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in East Sussex aged 16-18, with care from staff 24 hours a day.
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Enthum House offers a programme of life skills, technical workshops and a mentoring programme, as well as a tailored therapeutic integration programme responding to the complex mental health needs of its residents.
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It has worked with local authorities and commissioning partnerships to develop this service, and works in close partnership with local authority social workers and healthcare professionals.
Enthum House works to place young people into local schools and colleges as soon as possible, and offers intensive English language tutoring and study support.
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SDB supported the feasibility, setup and training phase of Enthum House ahead of its opening to residents in 2018, and we have since supported the project in providing therapeutic services including individual counselling and group therapy for residents as well as personal counselling, and more recently individual clinical supervision and monthly psychodynamic group supervision for staff. In 2020 our funding also supported English learning and other extra-curricular activities at the centre, as well as a feasibility study for the opening of a second centre, which came to fruition with that centre's opening in May 2021.
