The Advocacy and Independent Visiting Service supports children and young people who are in the care of a local authority to have a voice in decision-making about their lives. The service provides advocates who support young people through befriending and ultimately, representation according to their wishes. This could take the form of attending meetings with them, writing letters and/or making telephone calls on their behalf or lastly, to raise or follow up issues with appropriate agencies. Independent visitors are assigned to young people who want an adult friend to visit them regularly and share in ensuring that they are looked after well and supported. Volunteer advocates and independent visitors are the heartbeat of the Advocacy and Independent Visiting service, befriending young people and ensuring that they are empowered to participate in decisions that concern them and their lives.

25% of children and young people in the U.K will experience the death of a parent, sibling or grandparent. Many of these children and young people will feel alone and different. As we grieve we often struggle to support each other, being enmeshed in our own grief and unable to cope with the grief of others in the family. A death in the family can sometimes be anticipated, even though we hope it won't actually happen and a miracle will occur. Other deaths are often sudden and unpredicted, e.g through accidents, suicide or murder. However a death happens and no matter who it happens to, the feelings are the same, even if the impact and ramifications differ.

Many of the looked after young people, unaccompanied asylum seekers and young people struggling to cope in school or with substance misuse and crime have also experienced the death of someone close to them but have not had the space and time to develop the strategies to cope with the pain, loss and anger which instead has bottled up until it explodes.

There is no doubt that what is happening at home affects the behaviour of a pupil, or potentially inhibits their ability to listen and to learn. Many children and young people will experience trauma, loss or separation during their school years and may display very disruptive behaviour in school as a result. The correlation between recent loss, separation, trauma and bereavements with disaffection is high (85%) and yet this may not be fully acknowledged or appreciated by school staff. Jigsaw4u seeks to strengthen the relationship between pupils, parents and school staff and seeks to address these issues in a direct, practical and supportive way.

We can learn so much from listening to the views and experiences of children and young people. In fact, Jigsaw4u was set up and has developed as a direct result of what children and young people were saying to us about feeling alone and different as a result of their various experiences of loss and trauma. Many of these children and young people are highly distressed, angry and disaffected as a result of the reactions of adults following their loss and/or trauma. Jigsaw4u seeks to ensure that the voices of children and young people are heard and works in partnership with them and with a huge range of local, national and internationally organisations as well as governments, to achieve this goal.