Issue 03 - The Pilgrim - March 2012 - The newspaper of the Archdiocese of Southwark

Behind the scenes The Pilgrim March 2012
Helping to
chang
Since it was set up 20 years ago by
Catholic charity Dawliffe Hall Educational
Foundation, Baytree Centre in Brixton has
provided training, education and skills to
over 8,000 women and girls. Eileen Cole
finds out how its PEACH programme is
helping to change lives.
Pic: Steve Cadman
Behind the doors of
Baytree Centre, set
amongst the takeaways
and late night grocery
shops on Brixton Road, an
innovative programme
using young professionals
is helping to change the
lives of girls and women.
PEACH - Parents, Education,
Achievement and
Character building starts
from the premise that
that parents are the first
and most important educators
of their children.
Baytree works with
families in and around
Brixton who unemployed,
on low income, benefits,
or are disengaged from
the community.
Forty per cent of mothers
on the PEACH programme
are lone parents.
They have regular group
and one-to-one sessions
with the parent co-ordinator,
with whom they
draw up their individual
character development
programme.
This includes personal
goals for their children to
achieve each month, in
terms of issues such as respect,
responsibility, and
persistence.
PEACH helps girls by
giving them personalized
study and character
building support each
week from trained volunteers
who act as mentors.
The mentors are
trained through bi-weekly
group workshops and
helped to build tailormade
action plans for the
children and their
families.
Most of the volunteers
are recruited through
university careers’ fairs or
web sites such as
The Guardian’s “Hands-on
London” and Gumtree.
Once trained, they give
one-on-one academic support
to the children and
monitor their progress
through the National
Foundation for Education
Research tests at the
beginning and end of the
programmes.
The mentors meet their
pupils on a weekly basis
at the centre and help
them with their learning
and also with character
development.
Page 6