About West London Action for Children
- WLAC provides counselling and therapy and a range of parenting groups and therapy groups for children. It offers help at an early stage, not just when families reach a crisis. At the same time, it works with those in crises.
- The charity works with individuals as well as in peer group settings. It is often important for clients to be able to take advantage of both services and move between the two within one agency.
- WLAC delivers preventative and specialist care and therapeutic services that complement and augment those provided by the local authorities and other agencies, and in a way that families find easy to access.
- WLAC works with and for children and young persons at risk of abuse, neglect and ill-treatment, as well as those who are otherwise disadvantaged through additional stresses on their families such as poverty, unemployment, separation, mental health and substance abuse.
- It receives referrals from social services, schools, GPs, other agencies as well as self referrals. Some families have a statutory social worker but are referred to WLAC for a particular service.
- WLAC have found that some families choose to work with a voluntary organization rather than the statutory service.
- The charity uses a variety of approaches including family and individual therapy, solution-focused thinking, task-centred work, counselling, advice, networking support and information, including art and play therapies, narrative, systemic, behavioural and solution focused therapies. It also provides psychotherapy to children, adolescents, parents and carers of children.
- WLAC believes that parents know what is best for them and their children and assists them in working out positive life changes. Family workers experienced in child development, child management and personal development offer assistance in evolving strategies to address problems and help with the implementation.
- WLAC offers a series of one-to-one sessions for parents and their children, one-to-one counselling in schools, two therapy groups for children and four parenting groups for parents of children in different age groups. Last year, it also launched a Toy Library, which shows good visitor numbers. Its programme changes and develops all the time in response to needs.
All of WLAC’s services are free for clients. However, it costs more than £4,000 per week to provide them. WLAC raises money from charitable trusts, companies, individuals and some other agencies and also through fundraising events. It receives a small amount of statutory funding for specific projects.
Its three-year development plan, started in 2002/03, aims to reach up to 70 per cent more clients by the end of 2004/05. WLAC is now looking to cover its running, as well as development, costs for the financial year April 03 to April 04. Its target for the year is a total of £300,000.
Our history
WLAC has provided care and counseling to children at risk in the local community since 1917.
In the 21st century there is evidence of great hardship and need in WLAC’s catchments area of Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham.
Even today, both boroughs are experiencing social changes associated with urban deprivation, social need and social exclusion. Local statutory and voluntary organizations acknowledge the high level of need for specialist social care in WLAC’s area.
Because WLAC is small, it can respond flexibly and quickly to clients as needs arise. It employs 5 social workers/ therapists (3 on a part-time basis), an administrator and a part-time fundraiser.
It works with about 160 families per year, where at least one child per family benefits.