Gateway Family Services
Changing Lives, Changing Services.
We work to improve health, develop skills and opportunities and fight inequalities. We change the way public services work.
Don’t give up you can do it!
Sometimes it just feels like everything going against you. When you feel this way remember you’re not alone and there are always people that can help.
This is exactly the way that Mandy was feeling when she joined the key worker service.
Having to leave her job due to pregnancy as it was agency work, three years had flown by with busy mum taking care of baby’s needs! Now with baby firmly or not so firmly on his own feet , Mandy wanted to get herself back to work so she could make a better future for her young family.
We met up regularly to do the usual stuff like making a CV and looking/applying for jobs but Mandy was finding it hard to stay focussed and often appeared to be down and upset.
Eventually she confided that she had been experiencing Domestic Abuse, her partner was being a right pain in the … Controlling what she wore, where she went and calling her a bad mother for wanting to make a future for herself.
Mandy didn’t want to leave him as he was her baby’s dad and she loved him so I just gave her the details of a shelter and people to call if she changed her mind.
The situation got worse and worse and Mandy was showing up with bruises. Then one day he just overstepped that mark and beat her up in front of the kids. Enough was enough! Mandy called the police!
However what followed was a right ordeal with her having to meet social services and attend loads of meetings while he just seemed to be getting away with everything.
I continued to help in any way I could and re-assured her that she could get through this. She carried on applying for jobs and found this took her mind off her other problems
It was a hard time for Mandy but as she was a great Mum social services soon backed off and with support within two months Mandy received great news. She’d got herself a job! Two weeks after that she moved into a new flat and now she’s really happy in her new home and with her new life.
So don’t give up and if you need help just ask J ( Names have been changed to protect identity)
Volunteering – a stepping stone back into employment
Having been made unemployed during the height of the recession, Paul was lost as to what to do next. After seeing if retirement suited him, he realised that he wanted to get back into a working routine and wanted to give something back.
Paul had heard about Gateway’s volunteer programme with University Hospital Birmingham through his neighbour and decided that it was for him, signing up as soon as possible to help cardio patients to recover and rehabilitate.
Here he talks about his experience of being made redundant and finding his volunteering placement.
Paul now works with Gateway as a Support Worker, helping others to find employment or training, just as he did.
Birmingham Food Crisis: a glimpse of the unseen absolute poverty in 21st century UK
With thanks to Rhiannon Lockley who wrote this blog for us. Rhiannon is West mids regional women’s officer for UCU.
“We were really struggling. It really did get to the point where we just didn’t know how we were going to cope. It was literally pick one thing and do that, a case of either stay warm or eat.”
(Michaela, a Birmingham mother helped by Gateway Family Services Pregnancy Outreach Team, talks to ITV news, Wednesday 11th April 2012)
Usually when people talk about poverty in the UK they are referring to relative poverty. A person classed as relatively impoverished is significantly below average in wealth, meaning they are economically unable to participate fully in society. High levels of relative poverty indicate high levels of social inequality, which as has been argued in Wilkinson and Pickett’s 2009 book The Spirit Level are linked to a variety of negative problems in society. Relative poverty impacts on things like physical health, mental well-being, educational and career opportunities.
However, absolute poverty – meaning that a person is unable to fulfil their minimum physical needs such as food, drink and shelter – occurs in the UK also, and it is on the rise. Most people are completely unaware of the extent to which this exists, or the ways in which the current economic climate is impacting on some of the most vulnerable members of our society. Media coverage of two organisations working in Birmingham have been eye-opening in showing how absolute poverty is a growing problem for the city.
Gateway Family Services are a non-profit community interest company who work in innovative ways to improve health, develop skills and opportunities and fight inequalities. In the last few days they have been instrumental in highlighting the real deprivation being fought by their pregnancy outreach team. They have set up a food bank in response to the reality that many pregnant women using their services were missing meals for days at a time. Clearly this is a great concern: malnutrition in pregnancy can have a devastating impact for both mother and baby, including obstructed labour, increased risk of premature birth &/or low birth weight (linked to infant mortality, growth retardation and infant illness), and increased risk of anaemia in pregnancy (which is linked to mortality in labour). They are not by any means the only food bank in the city, and like many others are finding big increases in the numbers of people forced to rely on this kind of support just to get by. For some, the service provides a lifeline in a time where we have high levels of unemployment, household debt, and escalating costs of living. For others, asylum-seeker status means that they are unable to access basic benefits and are struggling to feed their families.
http://www.itv.com/news/central/update/2012-04-11/full-report-on-birmingham-pregnancy-food-bank/
http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top-stories/2012/04/11/food-crisis-gripping-birmingham-as
-pregnant-women-go-days-without-a-meal-97319-30734290/
Similarly, Home-Start UK, a national family support charity, have also been in the media, talking about the way in which their services, once a helping hand for needy families, are being inundated with unprecedented levels of calls for help. In Birmingham they have seen a rise of 70% in requests for help many of which are from working families. Home-Start emphasise that the knock-on effects which come with economic difficulties – mental health problems, relationship breakdown, housing difficulties – are leading to families tipping over into crisis.
http://www.channel4.com/news/britains-working-poor-at-financial-tipping-point
I spoke to Vicki Fitzgerald, Chief Executive of Gateway FS. She says that Birmingham is in many ways in a unique position, in that it is unusual to have community support services like Gateway FS funded through public authorities. There has been a great public response to the story, and Birmingham should be proud both of this, and of its commitment to funding the vital work that Gateway FS do. Many cities with similar levels of deprivation rely on stretched charity provision alone to provide food and support, so while the picture highlighted in Birmingham is bleak, elsewhere it is worse still and going unnoticed by many. I have been told by someone working with vulnerable people in nearby Wolverhampton that some local food-bank charities have informally requested a stop on referrals because they are unable to cope with the escalating demand. Meanwhile, the Trussell Trust, a Christian charity, estimate that they needed to feed 100, 000 nationwide in 2011, and forecast that this figure will rise to half a million by 2015.
What can we do to help? On a local level, while there have been many positive responses so far, the more people support Gateway FS and other groups the more vital support these groups can give to the community. If you would like to help, you can read about the work the group do at http://gatewayfs.org/ . You can get in touch to arrange donations to the food-bank by contacting Michelle Bluck, who co-ordinates support for the pregnancy outreach team, at info@gatewayfs.org. Outside of Birmingham, the Trussell Trust, who run food-banks nationwide can be reached at http://www.trusselltrust.org/foodbank-projects
However, looking at the bigger picture, it is not just fire-fighting in a climate of rising economic problems which organisations like Gateway FS have to contend with. Often there is little empathy from the general public for the awful experiences women who use their services have had: Vicki Fitzgerald spoke to me very briefly about the life-histories of some of the women they help, which included being subject to atrocities such as rape in the countries they have left to seek asylum:
“The women have the most complicated and difficult lives and people really don’t understand”.
In a climate of austerity cuts, we need to fight to protect the good work which organisations such as Gateway FS do locally. However, I believe we also need to ask the question as to why, when the UK is even during a time of economic recession one of the most wealthy countries in the world, we are having the debate as to whether we can afford to meet the needs of society’s poorest, and not the debate of why their needs are not being met in first place.
Links: further reading
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jobcentres-to-send-poor-and-hungry-to-charity-food-banks-2356578.html
http://motherchildnutrition.org/malnutrition/about-malnutrition/impact-of-malnutrition.html
Pregnant Mothers helped with food poverty crisis in Birmingham
We are really pleased with the press attention being given to the food poverty amongst pregnant women in Birmingham and how we are able to help with food parcels. Unfortunately this probably happens in most cities up and down the country. What we should acknowledge is Birmingham is doing a great thing – over the last 6 years it has investing in helping vulnerable pregnant women be safe, healthy and supported, so that their babies are born healthier.
In 2006 the NHS Public Health in Birmingham acknowledged that something had to be done about the severe inequalities being faced by some people in the city, there is real hardship and Birmingham was experiencing the worst infant mortality rate in Europe.
They knew something needed to be done and they put their trust in us to deliver life-changing services to those that need it most.
We have worked with over 5,000 pregnant women since then and the NHS continue to support the service – this service is not available anywhere else – it is Brummie born and bred and we should be proud.
Many many women we support find themselves in circumstances that we could never imagine, I am proud that our organisation can support them and that this makes Birmingham a better place to live in.
Gateway Family Services is a Community Interest Company based in Birmingham since 2006
Breaking the cycle of teenage pregnancy
Teenage pregnancies can go through families in generations. It’s quite common in fact for young mothers to be the offspring of young mothers. It’s the lifestyle and culture that many women know and find it hard to break.
I met Leah as a young mum to be who was from a family who were part of this chain of teenage pregnancies. Her mum had a huge family and her sisters are all young mothers, each continuing the cycle and lifestyle that went before them. All of them had many interactions with social services. All of them expecting help without making the initial steps to get it. It’s a hard mind set to break.
Leah was different though, scared and lost (as young people tend to be), she was trying to escape the same lifestyle that she has seen growing up and had affected her mental and physical wellbeing, with Leah even having tried to kill herself to escape her situation. She had also lost trust in everyone that she came into contact with, professionals and people who said that they were trying to help her.
She didn’t want to be a teenage mum, struggling to support her baby until they too became a teenage mum. She needed to be guided and to be helped, simple information and support that could help her change her life.
Because Leah wanted to be different, I was able to show her a way past the problems and hassles that she was expecting to face, showing her that if she was able to make the first move then she would be rewarded for it. Silly little things like taking her to parenting classes and doctors appointments so that she was able to care for her baby, filling in application forms for benefits and grants so that she was able to look after the baby on her own and helping to build her confidence and trust by speaking to her honestly and openly, without looking down on her or her situation. She so desperately wanted to be different to all of those others that have their baby taken away from them that she was prepared to do anything she could to help herself.
These “silly little things” add up, she realised that I was there for her all the way, that I wasn’t going to take a half hearted ‘OK’ for an answer and that together, we would follow through with the things that we said we would. I gained her trust by doing what I said I would, when I would and made sure she kept to her promises too.
The Leah that I saw at the start of our is a completely different person to the one that is now the proud mother of her baby girl. She’s happy, she’s confident and she is accessing the support that is available to her, from professionals too!
And of course the baby is gorgeous!
The family can be a place of violence and abuse…
Of all our social institutions, the family is perhaps the one with which we are most familiar. As we proceed through our lives, our experiences within the family give rise to some of our strongest and most intense feelings. Within the family context lies a paradox, however: although most of us hope for love and support within the family — a haven in a heartless world, so to speak — the family can also be a place of violence and abuse.
MARILYN POOLE, Family: Changing Families, Changing Times
Farah (not her real name) was physically and emotionally abused by her partner for many years. As Farah was from a Pakistani heritage she was made to believe that this is the norm of every Asian family.
Farah grew up witnessing the same tribulations in her mothers life. Her father used to beat her mother for minor reasons such as; there is mess on the floor which is not cleaned. After questioning her mother Farah’s mother said this is the fate of all women and this is what all men do. Farah grew up witnessing this violence between two people who taught her about life …………….and this is what she was taught, a womans place is in the kitchen, and if she makes a mistake she needs to be punished.
Now Farah is living through the same horror, not realisng this is unacceptable and inhumane. She has a belief ingraved in her from her family that it is normal to live inthis kind of a relationship…….
Helping people change their behaviour
Sometimes, just having the motivation and desire to lose weight is the biggest barrier to overcome for most people who are considering getting in shape or getting healthier. The routine and desire to ‘stick with it’ can seem too much hassle, especially for people with busy lives and families.
Our Health Trainers know this all too well but are trying to get people to realise that with just a few minor tweeks to their lifestyle, their whole health and wellbeing can be transformed. With that added bit of motivation and support, people are able to work towards their goals at a pace that suits them and that they feel comfortable with.
Simon, who had been wanting to get back in shape was one of those people who needed the boost and confidence to change his lifestyle, not just for him but for his whole family. After meeting his Health Trainer Sean, Simon realised that he was able to work towards getting more healthy slowly and in a way that he wanted to wit, with massive results., for him and for his wife and kids.
Khan Thought He Had All The Experience and Qualifications Needed to get a Job in England
Khan came to the UK to live with his wife but he came on as a visitor visa so he had to go back to Pakistan. Eventually he got a spouse visa but it didn’t take him long to realise that job prospects were not what he thought they were. His wife was friends with my wife and she made a referral to me because she knew I was an employment advisor.
Khan has a lot of work experience and qualifications but they are not recognised here, a Masters in Pakistan is the same as an Honours degree in England. He has looked for work outside of his field because he knew that he wouldn’t get the type of work that he has done previously. In Pakistan he was a teacher and here he had been self employed selling sports goods but the competition was too big.
Khan’s wife was working and supporting the family inspite of her health problems. Khan now needed to take over and be the main breadwinner.
Khan did not have a CV or references. I told him that working culture is different in England and we need to start with a CV. Khan was confident that he had all the experience he needed and would not need help with interviews etc.
At the first Interview Skills Workshop Khan’s eyes were opened to the way things are done in this country and afterwards told me that he would never have passed an interview in a hundred years if he hadn’t done the workshop.
To get references he agreed to do some voluntary work at the QE through Gateway and he got all the training that went with the volunteering job. He now has something to put on his CV and he has now got a job in a factory. It is not what he wanted but he is bringing home a wage and supporting his family.
Getting people ready to work
Finding a job at the moment is tough for a lot of people, tougher still if you have few qualifications or are lacking experience in the world of work so we understand that many people need help to overcome the barriers and fears that they may have in stepping into the unknown.
Shamana joined one of our Employability Courses this year when she was struggling to find work. Initially overwhelmed by the thought of going back to training, especially as she thought she was a bit older than the average learner, Shamana tells us how she was made to feel comfortable in her course while being offered the support and guidance to help herself become more ready for work and confident in her own abilities at the same time.
We currently have more courses running that can help you develop your work readiness, CV or even just your confidence. They are free to join and normally in your local area.
If you are aged 24 and under and would like to know more about our courses then please contact Chelsea Gaffey on chelsea.gaffey@gatewayfs.org or phone on 0121 456 7820
New maternity suites at the Birmingham Women’s Hospital
Always keen to be up to date on what is going on in their local area, 2 of Gateway’s Pregnancy Outreach Workers accompanied their clients to have a look around at the new facilities for mums at the Women’s Hospital in Birmingham to see what mothers-to-be can expect during a very special time in their lives.
The Birthing Room -
Complete with gas and air, there is also a private bathroom and kitchen area for mothers to enjoy in privacy. Mums also have access to exercise equipment to help them remain healthy ready for their labour.
There is also a seperate quiet area for when things get too much!
The Birthing Pool
And for mothers who have decided to take the water birth option, there are new birthing pools, complete with sensory lighting to make the whole experience a little less intimidating.
The atmosphere, described by our pregnant moms as less sterile and more homely, means that women have more chance of feeling relaxed and prepared, ready for their big day .
