About Shine

SHINE meets all of the ‘Every Child Matters’ outcomes.

Be healthy:- Young people are educated to make healthier food choices and are encouraged to increase their level of physical activity. Young people engage in a variety of activities which they would normally opt out of due to their size and shape for fear of being bullied or teased. These activities help to build up confidence and self esteem and improve emotional well being.

Enjoy and achieve:- The young people at SHINE get the opportunity to go on fun camping trips, often for the first time, and participate in a wide range of team building activities, such as canoeing and rock climbing, which they normally wouldn’t have the confidence and money to do. Those over 14 years are encouraged to work towards achieving their Duke of Edinburgh award at bronze, silver and gold level. All achievements are rewarded in award ceremonies.

Stay safe:- Coming from deprived areas, participating in all the activities as part of the SHINE project helps to keep young people safe and off the streets. Having weight problems leaves young people vulnerable to bullying and teasing when they go out. SHINE teaches them how to manage bullying and to respect themselves as equals.

Achieve economic well being:- If obese young people don’t lose weight there is a high risk of diseases such as coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, infertility, depression and fatty liver. This means expensive medication and treatments which often leads to disability and unemployment. SHINE helps young people get a better start in life physically and emotionally.

Make a positive contribution:- The Young People’s Committee helps gives young people a voice in contributing to the continuous improvements, making SHINE even better. The young people have helped to produce two self care booklets and an educational DVD to help young people who don’t have the confidence to attend SHINE. This really is a positive contribution.

Course Philosophy

The aim of the programme is to help young people to understand their weight problem so that they can manage it more effectively in an independent way. This is achieved by not only concentrating on food and eating, but by promoting a complete attitudinal change to lifestyles. For this purpose the programme incorporates the three interventions advocated by all obesity guidelines namely: nutritional therapy, exercise, and behavioural modification, which includes psychological therapies to address issues related to anxiety, depression, low self esteem and confidence, body image and bullying. We aim to develop emotional literacy and social skills to enable young people to explore any psychological issues or potential underlying causes of obesity, which may be on a group basis, or in 1:1 sessions. Due to the nature of the programme we expect interpersonal conflicts. Young people are encouraged to address and resolve conflicts as they arise in a mature and sensible manner.

The programme is youth centred with an understanding that each person is a unique individual. We provide a twelve week educational programme, followed by a twelve week maintenance programme, which promotes a better understanding of obesity and its presenting problems and we provide a non-prescriptive ‘no diet approach’ focusing on healthy nutritional eating. Young people are then able to design their own eating plans and make informed choices on food selections.

We introduce the concept of intake/output expenditure, encouraging young people to become more active by providing the opportunity to engage in a wide variety of sports activities. No activity is considered compulsory and young people develop their own activity plans in relation to their fitness level and sports competency.

We promote a family orientated programme. We are non-judgemental and have a ‘no blame’ culture. We believe that families require help, support and understanding rather than criticism and we help families to change at their own pace, in relation to individual circumstances. This encourages high levels of success and promotes longer term outcomes.

The relationship between the young person and the professional is crucial. We are non-hierarchical believing each person to be an equal regardless of age, status, academic ability, size, race, culture, religion or sexual orientation and we are respectful of differences. We are a team of highly skilled and professional practitioners in a privileged position to learn what works best for overweight young people. We are led by the young peoples’ experiences and make changes to the programme accordingly. We therefore provide services that young people tell us they need, rather than what we the professionals think they need. We sincerely believe that this humanistic, holistic approach will enable young people not only to lose weight but to enter the adult world in a more confident and assertive manner, regardless of their size or shape.

Kath Sharman
Director of SHINE

 

Links

The Obesity Awareness and Solutions Trust (www.toast-uk.org)
Men’s Health Forum (www.menshealthforum.org.uk)
SHINE feature in direct.gov.uk (www.direct.gov.uk)
Youth Funds (www.direct.gov.uk../youthfunds)
Health and Relationships (www.direct.gov.uk../healthandrelationships)

 

ALL THE INFORMATION ON THIS WEBSITE IS IN SUMMARY FORM AND GENERAL IN NATURE. SHINE IS NOT LIABLE FOR INTERPRETATION OR APPLICATION OF INFORMATION. IF WORRIED PLEASE CONSULT YOUR GP OR CONSULTANT.