‘It has been wonderful for her to maintain her link with Safety Net. She’s had a pretty rocky half-term and also had a family bereavement in the summer that seems to be really affecting her. I think coming and doing a day with you all really helped. It’s also been great for her to do something on her own, without any of her usual friends – it seems to have given her a lot of confidence (she’s just signed up for a dance class at school that none of her classmates are doing, which is great). Nicki said she now feels more confident in herself ‘I did some activity days during the summer holidays. These were really fun! I met new people and did things like a cooking day and a drama workshop. These helped me to feel more confident and safe.’

We went to the seafront and then we sat on the seafront for about half an hour and then some man tried to grab us and pull us under the pier. He was talking to himself. He was just staring at us, and we walked past him and then H started laughing, and he said ‘watch out’, and we gave him a look and then some guys had a go at him coz they overheard. So he went and stood under the pier, taking photos of me and H and videos, and these other men came and said ‘do you want us to walk you to the bus stop?’ and we were like ‘no we are fine’ because obviously they were strangers and they could have put us into their car or something…really they wanted us to go with them to a club thing, because they thought we were older than we look…but then this man…he grabbed me and said ‘come on you come with me’ and pointed to the pier, so me and H went to the bus stop and my auntie was there, so she sat with us on the bus, so we did find an adult that we knew.

I cannot express my thanks to you all. Molly was a very depressed and unhappy child when she met you guys. Now she is a happy and outgoing child all the input you have given her and the days out have been invaluable to her and myself.