Welcome to Child Action Northwest

Over 125 years ago our founder, James Dixon began working with vulnerable children and young people across the region, caring for those in need in what he established as Blackburn Orphanage.  The majority of those ‘orphans’ weren’t bereaved of parents, but brought from families experiencing a wide range of reasons.  There were a wide range of social, physical and mental problems including poverty, unemployment, neglect and abuse, addictions, crime and imprisonment, marital breakdown, teenage pregnancies, and dysfunctional relationships.  Today, although we no longer care for people in an institutional setting such as an orphanage, the problems the charity is faced with today are the same.

Child Action Northwest has developed a range of dynamic projects and services to protect, support and empower  children, young people, families and communities.

These include:

• Foster Care Services; offering children and young people a place to live where they will receive a high level of support to achieve their full potential. In general CANW helps children with particularly difficult issues.
• Familywise:- working one to one with the family to support parents through a wide range of issues, including alcohol and drug addiction, which is highlighted by their children’s poor performance at school.
• Young Carers:- every child or young person with caring responsibilities deserves to be a child first. CANW supports the whole family in this situation in a variety of ways.
• Supported Lodgings Service:-  is aimed at young adults aged 16 to 25 who cannot live with their own families and are not yet ready to live independently.
• Family Group Conferences:-  helping families to put together plans to protect or support their children being affected by a range of complex issues
• Community Reparation Schemes:- working with young offenders, police and community groups etc. to find projects that would benefit the community at large.
• Youth Engagement:- working in partnership with local young people to improve where they live by challenging behaviours and encouraging aspirations
• Jigsaw:-  helping the very many children and young people who are suffering mental health issues as a result of the family environment
• Not just a bump:- a sexual health project aimed at the 12 to 19 age range including help with coming to terms with the care and emotional needs required when parenting a young baby.

Plus many other services such as sex education, healthy living, supporting adults back into education, helping young people communicate their feelings, emotions and thoughts through electronic media and adventure sports programmes.