The Harbour Project
Ascent HouseChapel Street
Cowley
Oxford
OX4 1XL
01865 244218
The Harbour project is a school-based mental health service for young refugees and asylum seekers in Oxford. We work in one primary school and two secondary schools in the city.
We offer consultation with the schools and work therapeutically with those children and young people who are struggling with emotional or psychological distress, disturbance or trauma as a result of their refugee experience. To support their various needs, we will work with them on an individual, family or group basis.
Two therapists are involved in the project - an occupational therapist and an arts psychotherapist - and they use a number of approaches including talking, using the arts, practical and solution-focused work, and where necessary we use interpreters.
Each year we facilitate an arts group for unaccompanied young people (young refugees in the UK without their families or customary care-givers) in which they can explore psychological, educational and social issues, thus reducing their sense of isolation and strengthening their resilience.
The needs of the young refugees we work with are often complex and so we work closely with other services with the consent of the young person to try to meet these needs.
Harbour gallery