A woman from Bedwas has credited a post-care skills service with saving her life, after the charity celebrated securing new funding to ensure its continuation.
Johanne Halford, 21, benefited from the Skills for Living service, which is run from Action for Children’s office in Blackwood and helps young people aged 16 to 24 leaving care make the difficult transition to an independent life.
Johanne, from Bedwas, said: “Without the project, I would probably have been dead by now. I was in that bad a place.
“I was struggling to get away from my abusive ex-partner and I felt like there was no way out whereas I came to Action for Children and they showed me what I could do and the things I could use to make me feel safer.
“That helped me massively because I was in a terrible state from self-harm and overdosing that I was ready to go. But now I’ve got a will to live and even on bad days I tell myself I want to live and I want to be here.
“Action for Children has given me the emotional life skills to get through the bad days and I use them every day.”
The charity, which previously received funding from the national Big Lottery Fund, has secured its future with The Gwent Local Partnership Board
Andy Dunn, practice team leader at Skills for Living in Blackwood, said: “We wanted to celebrate the work the young people at the project have done and the amazing progress they’ve made as the Big Lottery funding comes to an end and a new funding chapter opens with The Gwent Local Partnership Board.
“Johanne is a great example of how seemingly desperate situations can be turned around.
“She has responded brilliantly to the Dialectical Behavioural Therapy programme and her life is far more stable and happy than she could’ve imagined two years ago.
“It was great to see Johanne and so many other young people come and celebrate with us after all the effort they’ve put in.
“Skills for Living makes a huge difference to the lives of very vulnerable young people and very well worth celebrating.”