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Organised by Red Balloon Educational TrustOur newest Red Balloon is opening in Worthing, West Sussex to help support bullied and traumatised children in the area. We need help redecorating and equipping the Centre to make it a place students feel comfortable and safe.
Closed 31/12/2021
The campaign has now expired but it's not too late to support this charity.
Visit the charity's profileRed Balloon provides education, mental health support, and personal development to children aged 11 to 18. We help those who self-exclude from school: too frightened to attend because they have been severely bullied, they are simply too anxious, or because they have suffered a trauma, such as bereavement, injury or medical condition.
Our students find school so terrifying that they have stopped going, even though they want to learn, want to make friends and go on to further education.
Our new centre in Worthing is opening to support the young people of West Sussex and help them get their education, and their lives back on track.
Rachel lives in Worthing. In year nine at the age of 14 she had friendship problems, combined with mental health issues, and began to miss days from school. What she had previously described as her happy place became a living hell.
I would spend the school day planning my escape routes. I began purposely keeping myself awake at night as the less I slept, the slower the morning would arrive when I would have to go to school.
It got to the point where the anxiety was too much. I would hide under the bed, scream, and cry and plead with my parents not to make me go. Days became weeks and then after the Easter holidays, CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) decided that it was not in my best interest to return. It felt like I had no school, no friends, and no hope for the future.
A family friend introduced us to the local alternative provision centre (APC) for children with specific anxiety issues or who had experienced bullying. I thrived. Here I achieved nine GCSEs and went on to complete four A levels at the local college. I am now in my second year at university and it feels like I'm making up for all those lost years when I should have been making friends and enjoying myself.
A year after Rachel left the APC, it closed and became a Pupil Referral Unit for students who are excluded from school for behavioural reasons. It means that children like Rachel now no longer have anywhere in or near Worthing to go.
It breaks my heart to think there are children like me who are at rock bottom, with no school to attend and no future prospects.
Help support Red Balloon Worthing and provide children like Rachel the specialist education support they need to thrive.
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