PREVENTING HOMELESSNESS PROVIDING OPPORTUNITIES

Move On History

Move On was established in September 1997, with financial 'start up' support from the Big Issue in Scotland to provide a range of services for people affected by homelessness. Move On is a company limited by guarantee, with charitable status. It is entirely independent, and is run by a Board of Directors.

When first set up, Move On’s remit was to provide crisis driven reactive housing resettlement support to homeless people, mainly vendors of the Big Issue in Scotland magazine.

Move On operated in both Glasgow and Edinburgh, and had offices in the Big Issue premises in both cities. As time went on, Move On was able to attract other sources of funding, allowing the development of new services. The Board took the strategic decision to re-focus Move On’s services away from crisis driven reactive work to concentrate more on longer-term proactive work with a focus on preventing homelessness.

Staff had reported that the crisis intervention work was only assisting people in the very short-term, and not enabling them to make a permanent break from homelessness. It was increasingly recognised by the Board that effective solutions to addressing homelessness, needed to be longer term, looking at the range of issues in people’s lives in addition to bricks and mortar accommodation issues.

In 1999 Move On developed our first employability service (the Glasgow-based Training and Development Service) and a 1:1 support service for people who had been homeless and needed support to manage in the community. The success of these services still influences our work more than 10 years on. In Edinburgh our services took a different direction concentrating primarily on homelessness prevention, and targeting vulnerable young people. We developed a successful peer education approach offering opportunities for young people who had experienced homelessness and the care system the opportunity to become volunteers, delivering advice and information on housing issues to other vulnerable young people.

In 2009 our services developed even further following our success in attracting Inspiring Scotland investment. This new investment won against stiff competition, enabled us to develop our employability and homelessness prevention activities to work with vulnerable 14 – 19 years olds.

Our services have developed further to include:

• Money and Debt Advice
• Literacy and Numeracy Tutoring
• Mentoring for care leavers and vulnerable young people
• Visiting support for people affected by homelessness
• Advice, information and guidance on housing and support
• Volunteering opportunities
• Employability services for 14 – 19 year olds