Homelessness trailblazers

The schemes, announced by London Councils, are in line for a share of more than £50,000 from the award, which is open to local authority housing departments, registered social landlords, social services, NHS trusts, and voluntary organisations in London.

The shortlisted projects:

Cricklewood Homeless Concern: Youth Engagement Scheme (YES)

The YES project was set up by young homeless people in 2008 in response to local resident concerns about a group of youths engaged in anti-social street based activities. The project is unique because it is managed by the young people themselves. These young people have formed a steering group to develop projects in the community that tackle exclusion and divert other young people away from homelessness and anti-social street based activities. Examples of YES activities include summer football and boxercise sessions, participation in residents associations and ward panels, and training sessions for new police recruits.

Depaul UK: Broadening Horizons

This project helps homeless and disadvantaged young people get the skills they need to get back to work by organising work experience placements for them. It is open to all young people benefiting from Depaul UK’s in-house programmes in various parts of the capital including Brent, Camden and Islington.

All young people are offered a reference from their placement and assistance with updating their CV. They are also signposted to other Depaul projects and external agencies to support them with their next step on the path to sustained employment.

New Horizon Youth Centre: Creating Positive Futures Work Programme

The Creating Positive Futures Work Programme started in October 2009. It enables young homeless people attending the New Horizon Youth Centre in Camden to access education, employment and training opportunities, by providing accredited courses on using the internet, securing job placements or helping them complete CVs.

New Horizon Youth Centre has committed to delivering this programme to 200 young homeless people a year, and in the first six months of the project was already a long way towards meeting this target by helping 144 homeless people.

St Mungo’s: Brent Dual Diagnosis Project

Brent Dual Diagnosis Project helps homeless people with a combination of health and substance abuse problems in Brent.

Unlike other service providers, the project takes a holistic approach to helping its clients by considering the social, medical, physical and psychological needs together.

It does this by integrating psychotherapists and other professionals, into the in-house support team and offering intensive staff support 24 hours a day.

This tailors a unique approach to each individual, rather than a one-size-fits all method.

The London Pathway for homeless healthcare

Based in University College London Hospital (UCLH) in Camden, the service has a dedicated homelessness nurse and a specialist homelessness GP working on the wards of the hospital.

They co-ordinate proper care across all hospital departments, work with patients on underlying mental health and substance misuse problems, and through their attention to detail and advocacy, make sure that homeless patients get all the care they need and are entitled to.

This includes making sure that patients are also supported after they have left the safety of the hospital.

Vision Housing

This project works with homeless ex-offenders to break down barriers with private landlords and make sure that they have access to good quality homes. Since 2007, they have housed and supported over 235 people. Only 10 per cent of these have reoffended which is very low in comparison to the 75 per cent London average. As well as housing, the project helps former prisoners access benefits, training and employment to help prevent reoffending and whatever other advice and support they need. This includes allowing clients to come back at any time if they need to.  They get referrals from a wide range of organisations including charities, the police and Croydon, Kingston and Merton councils.

Have your say

You must sign in to make a comment