Youth mental health organisation The Space in Cheddar officially becomes a charity

The Space has been around since 2017 as a project of the Cheddar Community Partnership supporting the mental health needs of children and young people in the area.

The organisation is delighted to announce that it has "grown up" and become a charity, The Space CIO.

Its core aim remains the same, to keep young people safe, mentally and emotionally well and resilient, and to tackle root cause issues to build a sustainable and resilient culture of community, family and individuals.

The Space project works with local young people aged between four and 18 years living with low mental health and emotional resilience, often in crisis - for example depression, anxiety, attempted suicide, etc - potentially caused by several issues, including abuse, neglect, and trauma.

The latest results on how Covid-19 is affecting children and young people in Somerset shows a 58 per cent increase in young people seeking support, sexual abuse up 46 per cent from last year, self-harm up 27 per cent, sadness 128 per cent increase, sleep issues 161 per cent, family relationships up 128 per cent and health anxiety 133 per cent.

A spokesperson for The Space said: "Within the Cheddar Valley, we are seeing an increase in request for support from young people, their parents, grandparents and from clinicians.

"The Space is local, independent and offers professional free of charge one-to-one counselling services and other facilities developed to build relationships, establish trust and confidence to engage and support young people. It costs £500 for every young person we support.

"We know there is strong support for young people in our community. We have been unknown until now. We would like to change that and ask for your support in what we do."

The Space is asking people to volunteer, tell people about its work, fundraising to support its work or by donating on www.justgiving.com/the-space.

You can find out more by contacting Doreen Smith at [email protected].