St Christopher's remembers our young people in the World Wars

On Remembrance Day, we remember the impact that both WW1 and WW2 had on our young people at St Christopher's.

St Christopher's Fellowship has been providing support for children and young people since 1870 and has experienced many notable events throughout its history, including both World Wars. Using our archives, we've managed to uncover details about how St Christopher's and its young people were affected during wartime.

At the time of the First World War, there were many boys aged 17 and 18 living in St Christopher's homes and many of these young people enlisted in 1914 and were called up for service at home and abroad. St Christopher's was told that the boys were "always first when anything has to be done".

As well as supporting the young people already living in the services, St Christopher's also took in 70 Belgian refugees from 1914 to 1918. Letters later received from the Belgium young people expressed gratitude for the support they received from St Christopher's.

The young people staying in the homes made a big effort to contribute to the war effort, making crutches, knitting socks and contributing pocket money to wounded soldiers. One home, Tyndale House, even grew 205 bunches of grapes to send to London hospitals.

During the Second World War, one particular young man who contributed greatly was George Arthur Knowland, born in 1922. George was one of the first residents at Chiswick House, London, which opened in 1937. He really enjoyed his time at St Christopher's and praised the "wonderful work" we did during his time at Chiswick House.

Boys inside St Christopher's Chiswick House

In the early days of the war, George enlisted with the Royal Norfolk Regiment and was promoted to Lieutenant. George was sent to fight in Burma with the Commandos and was killed in action in 1945 during the Battle of Hill 170. Protecting his fellow soldiers, George's heroic actions ensured his platoon could hold on until reinforcements arrived. His bravery was acknowledged when he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross on January 31 1945.

Lieutenant George Arthur Knowland VC

Because of the love that George Arthur Knowland had for St Christopher's, Knowland House - one of our 16+ services near to where George grew up - is named in his honour and was opened in 2012 by his surviving sister Brenda Newman.

In total, at least 8,000 young people who had lived in St Christopher's homes were liable to fight in the First World War, not including those men already enlisted in the armed forces.

On this Remembrance Day, we remember all the young people supported by St Christopher's during the World Wars. As a quote from our archives says:

As we see them go from us we feel confident that they will be a credit to the various services to which they have become attached.

"It has been my privilege to work with Kevin": A young person's journey

Pete Smart, Sessional Worker, Southend, has been giving us an insight into the work he does with our young people.

For this post, I’d like to talk about the journey that the young people take whilst they are with St Christopher’s, rather than the actual activities we do. One young person I have worked with for 20 months is Kevin, aged 17.

Kevin has been in his foster placement for nearly two years after living in a residential home for years before that. It was a big change for him and a much quieter environment. His carer, Sarah, is a very calm person and this has enabled Kevin to relax and be able to call where he lives home. He also really likes the fact that Sarah’s friends all really like him and that they get on well.

We started by focussing on having positive relationships with others and with my support he now visits his family regularly. He has also built up enough confidence to travel by himself on the train to see his family.

Once Kevin's relationships were starting to improve, we focussed on managing his emotions. We worked through various strategies in how to be calm in difficult situations, such as recognising when he is feeling stressed and how to deal with it. This includes walking away, controlling his breathing, and relaxing himself so he doesn't react. He’s now able to express his feelings without worrying what others think and has the self-resilience to deal with life’s setbacks in a positive way.

Next we worked on having a positive view of education. I'm delighted to say that with support Kevin passed his exams in the summer. He gained a place at college where he is doing very well on a motor mechanics course, which he really enjoys.

With Kevin’s qualifications in place, we looked at gaining paid employment. Kevin needed a CV so we started by working together in order to identify the experiences and skills Kevin had. Kevin then managed to get a small job cleaning the offices at the St Christopher’s Chelmsford office. This gave Kevin the responsibility of paid work and meant we were able to add this to Kevin’s CV, which has helped a lot. Kevin also volunteered at a local bike shop for nearly a year, which gave him excellent experience of bike repairs and helping customers. We gave CVs to lots of prospective employers, as well as doing online applications. I'm delighted to say that our hard work paid off and after practising interview skills and pre-interview notes, Kevin got a paid, part-time job, which he is fully committed to. He really likes Fridays as it’s pay day!

Money management was next on our agenda, which should give Kevin the skills to live independently when his placement ends. We have worked on how to budget, working out how much food, bills and lodgings cost and how to get the best value for our hard-earned money.

Kevin's foster carer Sarah has been fully involved in all these activities and life skills work. In fact, we've worked together on most of the planning and I have supported the work Sarah has instigated as well.

In my time working with Kevin, I've seen him develop into a sociable and confident young man who has worked very hard for his success. It has not always been straightforward but he has made great progress and continues to do so. He has a great social circle around him and he has learned to accept himself and others without judging. He has responded really well to people who are positive role models in his life and gets a great deal of satisfaction when he helps others. He hopes to stay where he is beyond 18 as he’s really settled living with Sarah.

It has been my privilege to work with Kevin and see the man he is becoming.

National Care Leavers Week - Taylor House

In our last post for National Care Leavers Week, we gave you an overview of all the great work we do with our young people aged between 16 and 25 years old. Now we want to give you an insight into one particular service, Taylor House.

St Christopher's Taylor House is a 16+ service in West London. It supports vulnerable young people on their final steps towards living independently.

Taylor House provides safe and secure housing, close to home, for young people starting to think about the challenges of moving into their own accommodation. The service offers low-to-medium support to those who will benefit from help with access to employment, training or education, and life skills including cooking, budgeting and cleaning.

Each young person is expected to engage with a key worker who'll design a weekly action plan for them and provide five hours of support each week. They'll have the opportunity to gain AQA awards for their achievements and their progress will be measured using St Christopher's pioneering Q-Pack and the Outcomes Star.

Young people can be referred directly or they may "step down" from services providing higher levels of support (including St Christopher's Cornock House, which shares the site).

We receive lots of positive comments about our work with young people at Taylor House. One social worker said:

"Over the past 10 months Jamie has transformed. His mental health has improved remarkably. Jamie is surrounded by support workers who have resilience and have been quick to understand his needs and how to deal with him.

St Christopher's staff never hesitate to go extra miles in support of Jamie. As a result, Jamie feels he is ready to move back to mainstream society, something that was not imaginable 10 months ago."

National Care Leavers Week - Our 16+ Services

To coincide with National Care Leavers Week, we'll be giving you an insight into all the different services that St Christopher's provides for young people aged between 16 and 25.


St Christopher's has been supporting young people for over 140 years. Housing and support services have been an integral part of this work since the 1970s. We want to provide a stable, safe environment where young people can recognise and achieve their potential.

Some of the services we provide include:

• High quality, 24-hour staffed accommodation, including services for young care leavers
• Floating support for young people moving into independence
• Working with homeless young people

Every young person at St Christopher's receives a support package tailored just for them, which helps them learn the skills to be independent. We help our young people with budgeting, housing, building relationships, mental health, and physical health.

We want our young people to be able to track their progress and how far they've progressed. For example, one of our accommodation services in London is split into two parts: high support and medium support. We encourage young people to "step down" into medium support so they're living even more independently.

"My key worker helped me understand what areas I needed to focus on and what I was good at independently." - James, 16

We also want to talk to our young people about what they think of our support and what they'd like to change. In fact, some of our care leavers thought "leaflets were boring". We now have young people making films about the issues that affect them through our Wrap Project, helping to build skills and confidence.

St Christopher's is proud to support our young care leavers and we hope you agree that our services provide the best outcomes for our young people.

National Care Leavers Week - Preventing Drug and Alcohol Misuse

Throughout National Care Leavers Week, we'll be shedding some light on how we support our young people to lead independent lives. Today, read about the important work carried out by Ricardo Costa, Drug and Alcohol Worker.

St Christopher's colleague and young person working together

Ricardo Costa joined St Christopher's Fellowship in September 2013 thanks to generous grants from Comic Relief and the Pilgrim Trust. His work with us has two functions: preventative and supportive.

Throughout all of our services, Ricardo organises educational workshops, providing information about drug and alcohol misuse so our young people can make informed decisions. These workshops cover topics such as preventing relapse and talking about anti-social behaviour.

It's also great that young people attending these workshops get the chance to achieve an AQA qualification, helping them gain new life skills for the future. You can find out more about this on our website.

Aside from preventative work, Ricardo also works closely with young people struggling with drug and alcohol issues. By providing a safe space in which to talk about their experiences and needs, our young people really trust Ricardo and work with him on reducing/giving up drugs and alcohol and preventing relapses in the future.

Throughout the past year, Ricardo has had a massive impact on the lives of our young people and there are more plans in the pipeline, including further training for colleagues in our services and for foster carers to help them support our young people.