Cara’s story

Cara* came to St Giles as a highly vulnerable young person at risk of sexual exploitation, due to historic grooming and child sexual abuse. She struggled to follow rules, maintain boundaries and also suffered from low self-esteem.

Her St Giles mentor spent the first meetings with Cara just listening to her, so she felt heard. Then, after a few weeks, she began to open up with her. St Giles was able to help the family with some mediation which meant the family engaged with each other and put boundaries in place.

Cara has learnt about anger management and, through advice from her St Giles mentor, has been given techniques to help her manage her emotions better and learn about different communication styles.

Sessions have explored the importance of education and she is now looking at colleges with her mum.  Cara is learning to build and maintain healthy relationships, is getting on with her family better and they are now enjoying activities together.

With increased confidence and improved motivation, she has started working and developed her outside interests. She now attends a weekly local activity course with her younger brother and has also started training at her local gym.

Thanks to working in partnership with her St Giles caseworker, Cara now has a good idea of what she wants out of life, and what she needs to do to achieve her goals. Most importantly, she is now looking forward to a brighter, more positive future, something she felt she was never going to have.

 

*name changed to protect identity