Ethos and Philosophy
Empowerment, one of the most important words in Dreadnought’s philosophy. Empowerment with The Dreadnought Centre is about young people taking on more responsibility, more power and more control; making informed decisions for themselves.
We operate from a child centred perspective.
We offer a non-confrontational, unconditional acceptance to the children and young people who are it’s service users. Aiming to separate the children from their behaviour and to challenge unacceptable behaviour in a non-confrontational way.
We spend a lot of time training staff and volunteers in the understanding of these practice theories.
Both our staff and service users know that a child/young person can leave the project, be taken home at any time and withdraw from the work. On their initial visit to Dreadnought a young person will have this explained to them. Children and young people are not ‘sent‘ to Dreadnought, they come if they want to.
We have developed a unique approach to working with young people. This is a holistic approach using a combination of different disciplines.
Social Work: Working with young people who have identified needs and who are at risk.
Youth Work: Working with young people to help them identify their own needs and become involved in the decision that affects their lives: empowerment.
Social Education: Life skills, self image, communication with others, enhancing the self.
Community Arts: Introducing a philosophy of process work- breaking down the barriers to being creative and celebrating our own imagination and creativity.