There are some things that are generally helpful to everybody. Learning and doing activities builds confidence and improves health, volunteering gives people responsibility and a sense of purpose.
We offer a pathway from street homelessness to a settled life. There is no one definitive journey and any pathway has to recognise individuality and personal choice. Our pathway is split into three broad stages that allow for people to set their own individual goals as they move on. The stages are Engagement, Stabilisation and Fulfilment.
Our Engagement service is aimed at people whose lives are marked by a lack of routine and planning, and repeated crises. We sometimes refer to people being chaotic, by which we mean that their lives are reactive to the things they do rather than purposeful, motivated and determined. Small interventions make a big difference, such as sitting and having conversations whilst eating or having coffee, colouring-in, playing pool or table tennis. By doing these simple things trust grows which goes a long way to helping small routines and relationships to develop.
Most of our work to build trusting relationships happens inside our centre but we also do some outreach to, meeting people on the street who might be reluctant to come to our centre for some reason or another.
The Partnership Programme, gives people the opportunity to volunteer in the centre doing all sorts of work with different levels of responsibility. For some it could be agreeing to make sure rooms are tidied after activities and at the end of the day, others will join our kitchen team and others will help manage our lounge or stores of donated food and clothes. Through it, volunteers become members of our team and confidence and self-esteem develop.
Transition Support, which focuses on little things that make a big difference. For instance, if a person wants to make their accommodation more homely but doesn’t know where to start then having a little support to focus on that helps in all sorts of ways. It shows barriers can be overcome, demonstrates personal ability to plan and achieve and helps people to believe in themselves.
The Health and Wellbeing Programme is a key need for building a better future is good health. We work with people to look at living healthily, reducing anxiety and other mental health concerns. Helping people to live healthily has many advantages in helping people move to a stable life.
Our Fulfilment Services have the added opportunity of employment. We focus on helping people to enter employment and keep a work-life balance to avoid a return to homelessness and struggling to manage the pressures of life. The Health and Wellbeing Programme is an important aspect of helping people to think healthily as they start work.
