Positive Memory Bank - Berry Street

not have been available to them, were it not
for the money they received from the
Positive Memory Bank.
“Mary was overjoyed by the gifts. It is a rare day
that she gets something just for herself”
Case Study, Appendix 4
Among other objectives, the Positive
Memory Bank hopes to provide opportunities
for children and young people to have fun.
Feedback, and the nature of the
opportunities applicants accessed, implies
that this was very much the case for the
majority of those who received grants.
Young people surveyed also told us that they
achieved in ways that were special and new
to them. For some the achievements were in
areas they had always wanted to achieve,
for others they were incidental or part of
the experience as a whole.
“I learnt First Aid and got to become a First Aid
officer [at scout jamboree]”
Male, 12 yrs
Where some children and young people
applied for funds to support a connection to
their family, others considered their
opportunity a chance to connect with their
peers. It seemed important for some young
people to find things to do together, such as
reading books together or playing with toys
and generally just having the chance to
spend time with their birth family or foster
family. When asked if the Positive Memory
Bank money helped young people connect
more or better with their birth or foster
family we heard back that for half of those
surveyed, it did.
For some of those surveyed, the Positive
Memory Bank was also about wanting to do
something to further themselves as a person
or learn a new skill through activities such as
guitar lessons, violin lessons, driving lessons
and tutoring.
Given that surveys showed that the majority
of children and young people heard about
the Positive Memory Bank via word of mouth
it was encouraging to find that they were
enthusiastic when asked if they would
encourage others to apply:
“The Positive Memory Bank seems like a pretty
good idea - Go for it”
2.3 Support Staff
Male, 14yrs
We asked 20, randomly selected support
staff about the impact of the Positive
Memory Bank against the five focus areas of
the Positive Memory Bank (promoting fun,
providing ‘normal’ experiences, enabling a
sense of achievement, connecting children
and young people to their family and
providing resources);
• 85% indicated that the grant enabled
a sense of achievement
• 75% felt the grants their clients
received enabled fun, connection to
family and a chance to be like their
peers
• 70% noted the grant had supported
access to resources
One hundred percent of support staff said
they would encourage children and young
people to apply for the Positive Memory
Bank again in the future.
While the Positive Memory Bank had
articulated aims in terms of the areas it
hoped to impact, we also asked staff about
any additional benefits they had seen as a
result of the application process or the
grants received.
As the table below demonstrates children
and young people benefited in a variety of
ways, including improved self esteem,
improved self-image, improved skills,
connection to new friends and discovering
new interests. Staff also indicated that they
had experienced children and young people
gaining a more positive outlook as well as
overall improved health and wellbeing.
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