Skylight
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Born out of a good idea and desperate need in the late 90’s, Skylight has grown to help thousands of young people and their families across New Zealand cope with grief, loss, trauma and change.
This year Skylight will continue providing vitally important services and programmes, including counselling for over 900 people of all ages in the Wellington region. A wide range of issues are addressed and include bereavement, suicide, family break up or adjusting to step families, and living with illness or disability. Skylight’s dedicated counselling team are here to help.
Over 10,000 requests from around the country for resources and information from families going through a tough time will be received by Skylight and responded to. This service is offered free of charge so that families in distress can get the help they need.
Just recently a staff member took a call from someone asking for information to help a child whose close family relative who took their own life. It is heartening to be able to respond and empower people by giving them the information and tools to help them manage their loss or trauma.
- Each week approximately 2 young people between the ages of 15 and 24 die by suicide in New Zealand
- Approximately 400 adults die by suicide each year
- Police record around 12,000 family violence related assaults each year and around 10 children are killed violently each year in New Zealand
- Around 75,000 care and protection notifications to CYF - 13,000 of these cases were assessed as involving abuse or neglect (Aug 2007 figures)
- Almost a quarter of New Zealand children born into two parent families will be living in a single parent family by the age of 15.
These are the kinds of issues many of our children and young people face everyday and what our counsellors, trainers, and resource staff are equipped to help and support them and their families/whanau work through.
The experience of trauma, change, loss and grief can have a huge social and personal cost if young people move into adulthood without the ability to deal with their experiences. One of Skylight’s responses has been the development of their Travellers Programme. It is a high-school based programme for teens that builds resilience and enhances positive relationships. It is designed to make a difference at the top of the cliff, not the bottom.
Skylight also offers a number of support groups for children and their parent or caregiver. These support groups are set up to support children facing a number of different challenging situations including domestic violence, bereavement and family break up.
Skylight also offers a Mental Health Support Group for children who have a parent with a diagnosed mental health illness. This programme is offered for children of different ages and a group is run at the same time for parents.
Skylight also runs a very effective and needed community-based support group for young adults and adults impacted by suicide.
Grief is like a fingerprint – it is unique to each of us and all of Skylight’s vital programmes are designed to help young people and their families live through their grief - whatever the cause – and move on to build positive lives.
Winning a donation from Sovereign will help us achieve:
Skylight, with the generosity of Sovereign Sunshine and with the help from people like you, will be able to provide four Family Change Support Groups.
Families may change in a variety of ways including separation, divorce or break down of de facto relationships.
The Family Change programme is run to support a group for up to nine children aged 6-11 years. Another support group is run at the same time for the parents or caregivers of these children.
Each programme is one session per week, over the course of six weeks and is held during the school term.
Children who participated have said:
“When adults get mad at each other it is not your fault. Thank you.”
“Thank you for being kind.”
“I learnt that your parents still love you.”
“I learnt that you can do many things to calm your self down when you are angry.”
Parents have said:
“The group my children attended made a huge difference. The realised they weren’t the only kids these things happened to.”
“We are just overwhelmed with the wonderful help and resources – you have made a difference to our lives.”
“At first my child was really hesitant about going to a group like this, but after one week he couldn’t wait to get there again. It gave him some practical skills to manage … and he got lots of individual support which made him feel really good.”
Grief is like a fingerprint – it is unique to each of us and all of Skylight’s vital programmes are designed to help young people and their families live through their grief, whatever the cause.
Our details:
| Registration No: | CC27206 |
| Region: | Hawke's Bay/East Coast, Waikato/Bay of Plenty/Rotorua, Manawatu/Wanganui/Kapiti, Northland, Taranaki, Wellington, Auckland, Central Auckland, South Auckland, North Auckland, West Auckland, East Auckland, Canterbury/South Canterbury, Southland, West Coast, Nelson/Marlborough |
| Category: | Children's health - mental wellness and support for emotional trauma, Parental advice and support, Children's health and rehabilitation, Teenage advice & support, Children's health - life threatening illness |
| Contact Person: | Bice Awan (Chief Executive) |
| Address: | PO Box 7309 Wellington South Wellington |
| Telephone: | (04) 9396759 |
| Email: | ce@skylight-trust.org.nz |
| Website: | www.skylight.org.nz |
| No. helped nationally: | Over 5,000 |
| No. helped per project: | Between 100 - 120 |
| Existing sponsors or funders: | CYF fund 10% of our costs Apply to philanthropic trusts Local Supermarket: percentage of sales of a particular brand of bread and milk |
