Youth Access

Member Profile: Camden Under 25s Advice Centre Celebrates its 20th Anniversary

03 November, 2010

Camden Under 25s Advice Centre is a London Borough of Camden service and part of the
Integrated Youth Support Service. Since the centre opened on 1st November, 1990, they have been providing a quality service to 16-25 year olds who live in the borough. The centre has four full-time workers: 

Laura Ghiblawi - Senior Youth Worker and Centre Manager
Eleanor Morris - Youth Worker
Penny Conlin - Connexions Personal Adviser
Emma Perry - Information/Administration Officer 

Camden Under 25s Advice Centre aim to provide a high quality, responsive and efficient service and hold a Community Legal Service Quality Mark for General Help with Casework. 

What services do they offer?
The service offers young people a focal point for the provision of advice, advocacy and information on a wide range of issues that affect their lives, for example:

• Education
• Welfare benefits
• Housing
• Employment and training issues,
• Consumer and other legal matters,
• Health
• Personal relationships. 

They give a lot of support to young people and try to give them the educational tools to understand the information, arrive at their own decisions and take their own action.

The centre also offers information and advice to other professionals in the Borough in both the statutory and voluntary sectors. 

What's next for the centre?
They take a holistic approach to their work with young people and are currently piloting three new services in partnership with other agencies and are able to offer counselling, debt advice and advice on employment, training and education up to age 25.

What do young people think of the service?
The centre asked young people to complete Customer Feedback forms and received some excellent feedback:

"I think everyone hits a low time in their life but with the help that was given by staff things have turned out far better than I thought. I'm also very grateful for their professional assistance."

"I just wanted to say thank you for the support you have given me when I came to you with a problem I needed solving regarding my benefit eligibility. I was so totally confused by which benefits I was eligible to and my circumstance created a lot of confusion around this with me working part-time plus being a full-time university student. Thank you so much for helping work this issue out. Your service was extremely helpful and the receptionist and advisers were lovely."

"Very friendly, helpful and quick. I felt at ease about everything."

How has Youth Access helped?
Camden Under 25 Centre Team: “Youth Access membership has proved to be invaluable over the years, both as a resource and for the support the staff and organisation have given us”.

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