"Jodie had been sleeping on the streets for three months when she called us. We found her a bed for the night and a housing advice centre for the next day." Steve, Get Connected volunteer Helpline Worker
How the service works
Get Connected finds help for the thousands of young people who have a problem but don't know where to go for support with it. But how does it work exactly?
There are three main stages to a call, email or webchat with Get Connected.
1. Emotional support for the young person
First our volunteer Helpline Worker explores what's going on for the young person, finding out important information such as whether they're in danger, who else is involved and whether they've told anyone else what's happening. No young person is pressured to answer questions they aren't comfortable answering and everything happens at the pace of the young person.
This helps the young person prioritise their situation, in which there may be several issues worrying them and various ways of dealing with it.
2. Exploring the options
The Helpline Worker will help the young person decide what they want to happen next, whether it's to change their situation or simply talk to someone about it. We will ask how they would prefer to access help - eg by phone, online, or in person in their area. Then we will suggest some services from our database that we think may be appropriate, explaining what they do and how they might be relevant. It's up to the young person which services they choose to take details for, and if these turn out to be less helpful than expected, the young person can contact us again for alternatives.
3. Making contact with the best help
Get Connected can give contact information for the young person's chosen source of support by phone, text to their mobile, or via email if they're online. For those young people who have no credit, don't want a phonecall to show up on their phone bill or are simply too scared to explain their worries themselves, Get Connected's Helpline Workers can make a one-off free connection to another service.
This involves a 3-way conversation where Get Connected can check that the young person and their chosen service are both happy with the call, and Get Connected's helpline worker can make that initial and sometimes difficult introduction to explain why the young person is calling. Once the young person is comfortably connected to the appropriate service, our Helpline Worker leaves the call, which continues to be free for the young person.