Action Isleworth Mothers (AIM) is a completely free, confidential and independent community support service for mothers and young people affected by issues connected to serious youth violence in the London Borough of Hounslow.
We do not judge, we listen and we understand. We are that safe place.
WE DO
AIM provides a safe and confidential space for mothers to share concerns for their children and receive one to one support, education and empowerment in response to their experience of serious youth violence and its related issues in our borough.
Issues can include exploitation, fear of harm, the negative impact of exclusions or incarceration, behavioural and family issues, violence in the home, adverse historical familial or childhood trauma.
AIM further provides advocate support enabling a bridge between you and educational or other services if you are feeling overwhelmed and don't know where to turn. We provide the support and tools for you to get back on track, to have the future you want for you and your child. We understand how overwhelming things can be. We help you back to hope and away from that feeling of helplessness with practical and positive, effective support.
We are the help and the hope. We listen, we understand and we care - because we have been there too.
AIM is run by local mother/filmmaker Astrid Edwards who set it up to support other families like herself after experiencing the negative effect of one of her children being locally criminally exploited and furthermore in response to the fatalities of several young people in her local Borough of Hounslow. As part of her own experience, she managed to support several young men in the borough off ‘road’, back into mainstream education and work. At the time she felt the support services available to young people were not conducive to lasting or positive change. Similarly as a parent she felt isolated, misunderstood and inadequately supported.
With her experience of creating positive outcomes not just for her own family but with other local young adults, she set up AIM to support other families and young people in her community who were facing the same challenges. She works at ‘pavement level’ and maintains relationships with other like-minded community projects in the borough. She also sits on Hounslow's Adolescent Operations Advisory Board working to create a progressive, public health-based framework of trauma-informed, wraparound support for young people and families. Similarly, she has consulted with the Home Office Safeguarding and County Lines Unit with a view to rolling out a more cohesive and informed strategy for effective change in the support for young people and families across the UK. She occasionally combines her media skills to create film and audio projects relating to her work with AIM.
She is also Parental Governor at Woodbridge Park Educational Service, Isleworth and is currently partnering on London Borough of Hounslow’s forthcoming Parent Carer Champion Network.