Barnardo's - Safer Choices

Barnardo’s Safer Choices provides support to children and young people aged 18 years and under to identify risk and devise strategies to minimise harm, particularly in relation to sexual exploitation.

We particularly support young people who are ‘at risk’ in and around Glasgow City Centre and may:

· be at risk of, or involved in, sexual exploitation
· have run away or been thrown out of the family home
· be feeling and/or living with a high degree of chaos and trauma in their lives
· be involved in offending
· be using, or at risk from, drugs/alcohol and/or other substances
· be experiencing mental health or emotional difficulties

In addition our Safer Choices Missing Service aims to provide early intervention for young people who have been reported missing (from home and from local authority care) and who are at risk. Safer Choices Missing Service provides a safe space for young people to talk with someone about their missing experience. The focus of the service is on helping young people to reduce their missing episodes and to be safe.

We aim to do this by:
· helping young people to develop safer strategies that work for them to reduce their missing episodes
· raising awareness of risk and supporting young people to reduce their risk of being harmed
· informing young people of their rights

The service has developed a hub and spoke model with the Hub being based in Glasgow and the “spoke”, Safer Choices Missing Service primarily reaching out into other local authorities across the West of Scotland and beyond