About Us
Safe New Futures helps people facing mental health barriers to rebuild confidence, overcome setbacks, and return to education, training or work.
We are a grassroots charity that has served the community for over 25 years. Originally founded as Southampton Action for Employment, our mission has always been to address unemployment. Today, that means supporting young people and adults across Southampton, Portsmouth, Hampshire, Surrey and the Isle of Wight who face mental health barriers to work.
Our programmes combine group cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) with vocational training and pre-employment support. This holistic approach helps people struggling with anxiety, depression and other mental health barriers. Moreover, they build confidence and take real steps into education, employment or training.
Our commitment to the community shows in our partnerships with statutory and voluntary organisations, including the DWP, the NHS, local councils and Seetec Pluss. Over the past two years, 86% of participants with known outcomes moved into a positive next step. This includes employment, training, education or volunteering. Whilst many present with complex, overlapping barriers before they start with us.
Our programmes have helped thousands of people take control of their lives, and many have since moved into education, training or work.
Our Values
We see every person as a valuable human being with incredible worth and an ability to contribute to the community. Therefore, we are very much a people organisation. Existing entirely for the benefit of our candidates, we share values which we expect to see in our staff and volunteers when interacting with our candidates. These values are set out below.
Authentic: Openness, integrity, and honesty are embedded in all we do. Our work is evidence-based, responsive to need and adaptive to change. We listen and seek to understand and serve accordingly.
Believe in people: Respect for everyone we work with, developing true partnerships with beneficiaries, referral organisations, funders, and the wider community, celebrating everyone’s value and worth.
Committed to excellence: We are committed to quality, striving to be the best we can and give the best to the people we work with, serving above and beyond expectations.
At Safe New Futures We…
- Genuinely care about the people we work with, their life issues and their future.
- Are open and honest, sharing real experience rather than standing at a distance.
- Handle health, behavioural and emotional needs with acceptance and care, individually and in groups.
- Facilitate changed thinking and beliefs that lead to transformed lives.
- Listen effectively, with no agenda, to understand people’s issues.
“SNF is an effective and trustworthy organisation which has provided employment support services to the hardest-to-reach communities for years. Their approach in the New Futures programme has been academically and externally validated and they have run the service for Southampton and other local areas. I would strongly support this charity with its motivational and CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy-based) approach. SNF’s New Futures programmes give something different and provide immense support to people furthest from the labour market.“
Kathryn Rankin, Commissioner and City Deal Programme Manager with Southampton City Council
See how our programme has encouraged positive change in a previous graduate: