Girls Clubhouse (GCH):

offers help to a growing number of girls who have opted out of school, college or their family. These clients, all of whom experience emotional and mental health problems, are on the slippery slope to social and educational failure, disillusionment, sexual and personal relationship problems, rough sleeping and homelessness, petty crime and drug addiction.

Clients at the Girls’ Clubhouse benefit from one or more of these services:

Drop in Centre
The Girls’ Clubhouse provides a drop in centre with a comfortable and well-equipped recreational facility where girls can “chill out” and therapy room. We have in place a crisis team that provides a 24/7 monitoring service for any emergency situation. All clients must adhere to basic rules covering behaviour and conduct.

Emergency Housing and sheltered accommodation
We recognise the need to help girls obtain emergency housing preventing them from being pushed into limited options of sleeping with friends (often male) or sleeping rough in the street. We assist girls in finding emergency housing and sheltered accommodation, where appropriate, and help them access welfare benefits available to them.
Clients using this support mechanism must see a designated therapist and fully participate in Girls’ Clubhouse designated programmes.

Emotional and mental health issues
Two levels of service are provided:

1. Informal: Short term advice is offered to young girls with low level issues that could, if unattended, develop into long-term emotional and mental health issues. This provides an early warning system in cases where detrimental patters of behaviour are noticed, e.g., eating disorders, self-harming, addictions, stress due to examinations, sleep deprivation, unhealthy and / or unbalanced lifestyles, insecurity due to lack of qualifications and unemployment.

1. Formal: Where short, sharp interventions are inappropriate The Clubhouse provides an in-house therapist who sees all clients on a weekly basis, providing them with emotional and behavioural support and guidance. The therapist, within professional rules concerning consent and confidentiality, will monitor progress, working with a client to address any ongoing issues in the client’s life.
   
   

• Weekly activities: include eating out together, ice skating, cinema nights
• “Nights In” Special video nights have proved both inviting & productive as it gives the clients not only a safe environment but a chance to relax and talk over problems with caring staff.
• Monthly Activities are far more exciting (and expensive) and include themed birthday parties etc
• Annual Activities – These include a range of activities such as short visits overseas, summer and away camps.
  
  

Mentoring
Each client has a mature responsible adult as a mentor. This provides general support on matters such as lifestyles, basic health, and family/community reintegration.

Sexual Health Education
The clubhouse faces a particular challenge of helping these girls (some of whom have become very street-wise) within the constraints of orthodox Jewish laws. It calls for a degree of sympathy, openness, education and tolerance to help develop safe habits.

Education projects
In June 2004 we created YONAH. This is The Clubhouse's Girls’ education/enrichment centre. The aim of YONAH is to make education accessible to our clients, many of whom have dropped out of school prematurely due to a host of factors including learning difficulties, family dysfunction, emotional difficulties, etc. Returning to school involves facing the stigma of having deficits in knowledge due to dropping out. They may also be older than their peers, which could be embarrassing. Where a mainstream classroom may be daunting, YONAH provides discreet one to one and small group learning in core subjects, with optional "enrichment" classes in areas of interest to our students. Our goals are:

1. To make education less threatening and more accessible
2. To fill gaps in basic skills needed for entering the work world
3. To provide opportunity to explore a wide range of subjects that serve to enrich, with in some instances,
   a view to leading to higher education or to a career path;
   to build self-esteem and self-confidence in a vulnerable population by building on educational success.

Job placement
The Clubhouse through its own trained counsellors and in conjunction with Prospect Connexions (The Career Service), the Learning and Skills Council, Jobcentres and the local community finds work placements for young people easing their path into the world of work. We also encourage and support work trials and in some cases have helped young girls develop their own businesses. One current project is to train girls in computer engineering and training so that they can provide support for women who want women to help them with the installation of new computer systems and with one to one training in their homes.