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Home » News & Events » 2015 » July » Bromsgrove Partnership supports vulnerable families through its Sunrise Project

Bromsgrove Partnership supports vulnerable families through its Sunrise Project

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The Bromsgrove Partnership, a consortium that aims to deliver the best services for local people, is celebrating the success of a project set up last year to transform the lives of vulnerable people in Bromsgrove. Since its launch in March 2014, the Sunrise Project has enabled more than 31 families and individuals to build a better future.

The Sunrise Project works closely with families struggling with issues such as drug and alcohol addiction, debt problems, anti-social behaviour and school absenteeism, to name a few.

The project team came about following a Bromsgrove Partnership Away Day, where an urgent need was identified to offer one tailored, holistic service to address the issues and attempt to identify the underlying causes, finding real solutions, rather than having numerous agencies involved working separately.

This multi-agency approach, which is led by Bromsgrove District Housing Trust (bdht), combines experts from the Trust, Worcestershire County Council, Bromsgrove District Council, police and fire services, with each agency working in its area of expertise. The Sunrise Project is funded by BDC, bdht, the Bromsgrove Partnership and Worcestershire Partnership Executive Group and aims to identify the root causes of customers' issues, working together to resolve them and preventing them from recurring.

Service users are referred to the Sunrise Project by its partner agencies and the team then helps them on the path to success. Support includes drug rehabilitation, parenting courses, time management, debt advice courses and much more.

It also has links with the Starlight Café in Charford - a community hub set up by bdht with funding contributions from the Bromsgrove Partnership towards set up costs and its first year - to offer courses and programmes in a variety of areas including parenting, IT courses, Pathways courses, CAB, sexual health advice, groups for people with Autism and Aspergers and youth facilities.

Mike Brown, Chief Executive of bdht, said: "The main job of a Sunrise Officer is to identify the cause of their problem and co-ordinate with other agencies to find solutions to the many issues affecting local people. We aim to get them on the path to a better future.

"These are people that have been hit by bad luck and they deserve compassion. We are all only ever three bad decisions away from difficult circumstances. It's not always bad decisions that get people there; it can be a turn of fate such as redundancy or bereavement that can trigger other events to follow. Whether it's bad luck or bad decisions, these are all somebody's mother or father, son or daughter, brother or sister. We aim to help these people by understanding their circumstances and doing what we can to support them. The world can only get better if we make it better."

As the new Chair of the Bromsgrove Partnership Board, Mick Cadman, North District Commander at Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service, said: "Bromsgrove Partnership collectively took a decision to trial a new way of working with the aim of transforming the way partner agencies work together. Our focus has to be putting individuals and families at the heart of everything we do and I applaud the hard work of the Sunrise Team and all supporting partner agencies. We are still learning but we will continue to strive to transform services in partnership to make sure we truly support and meet the needs of our local communities."

The Bromsgrove Partnership is made up of representatives from the public, private and voluntary sectors who work together to deliver the best possible services for the local community.