PREVENTING HOMELESSNESS PROVIDING OPPORTUNITIES

The Housing Education Team

Our Housing Education Team uses a peer education approach. The Team trains and supports young people affected by homelessness and/or who have been 'looked after' in care, who then go on to provide fun, informal and interactive workshops to other young people about to leave care or home. The aim is to provide advice and information so that young people can make informed choices when moving on, and reduce their chances of experiencing homelessness. The Team delivers in a variety of different settings across Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth, Lothian’s, Fife and Stirling. To complement the work with young care leavers the Team also offers a mentoring service for young people leaving care. The Team has two main aims:

• To provide a service to young people in care and other vulnerable young people, better preparing them for the transition to independent living and reducing homelessness through the provision of information, and encouragement to make more informed choices.

• To provide a positive volunteering experience to people who are or who have been homeless or looked after in care and who may not have the opportunity or inclination to volunteer. This experience includes for each individual some or all of the 'giving something back to society', making new friends, developing personal and social skills, getting something for their C.V., using their time positively, and gaining experience for future career development.

The Team works with two distinct vulnerable client groups aged from 14-30 years old. We work with young people who have had experience of being homeless and / or being 'looked after' in care who are 16-28 years old. We recruit, train and support them to become volunteer peer educators to share their own experiences with other young people who will shortly face the reality of leaving home or care themselves. The volunteers provide information and advice through fun, innovative and interactive workshops they have devised, to help educate young people on all the options available to them, particularly relating to accommodation, sources of support and sustaining independent living. The second group is the vulnerable young people that the volunteers deliver workshops to. Many of these young people are currently, or have been, looked after and reside in Residential Schools, Young Person’s Centre’s (YPC’s) or with Foster carers.

The Peer Education model that Move On employs ensures that the young people hear information drawn from the volunteer’s life experiences which paints a real picture of their transition from care or home to independent living. Move On is now regarded as a flagship provider of peer education and we have received many visits from other projects all over the country.

Core work of the Housing Education Team

We recruit and run an intensive training course approximately twice a year for new volunteers. All of the volunteers must complete a seven day training course, an Enhanced Disclosure Scotland check and Social Work interview before they can go on to work with young people. The training covers topics like: dealing with difficult groups, child protection, confidentiality, boundaries and much more. A major part of the training is for the volunteers to develop, design, and make a workshop that imparts vital information regarding housing issues and independent living skills.

The bulk of the workshops that the Team delivered were previously in Residential Schools, Social and Behavioural Difficulties (SEBD) Schools and Young Person’s Centre’s (YPC’s). While this work continues, we are developing new ways of engaging hard to reach young people to meet increasing demand from a variety of new organisations. The work of the Team has been established through the development of the Housing Education Team in Glasgow and through securing longer term funding for Mentoring and the Preventative Housing Education in mainstream schools. The Housing Education Team was also successful in application to Communities Scotland for the part time post of the Commercial Development Worker.

The evaluations from young people show that they have developed an awareness of housing and homeless issues and can identify where to go for help, support or advice. The main issue facing young people from the evaluations is money and budgeting, closely followed by isolation and loneliness. All of the workshops and games aim to address these issues and the new volunteers coming through Move On are using these as a starting point for developing new games.

What the young people have learnt:

• The pro’s and con’s of having your own accommodation.
• Different housing options and how to apply successfully.
• Specific out of hour numbers for help.
• Where to go for help and information about a wide range of organisations and agencies that may be of interest in their area.
• Money and debt advice.

The Volunteers in Edinburgh’s Housing Education Team

Volunteer peer educators are the heart of the project, and give added credibility to the work amongst young people, who are more likely to listen to their peers who have experienced similar situations to themselves.

All our volunteers are aged between 16 and 30, and have all experienced homelessness, and some the care system. Volunteers have all had a different experience of homelessness – some have had a positive time, whilst others have had challenging experiences. They have all stayed in various accommodation types including sleeping rough, hostels, Bed and Breakfasts, supported accommodation, staying with friends, etc. Volunteers also have a range of differing support needs including mental health issues, poor health, abuse, drug and alcohol dependency, as well as the stigma of their homeless experience.

The huge increase in the number of workshops this year has given the volunteers hands-on experience of delivering to large numbers of young people. This had led to increased self-esteem and confidence, as many of the volunteers have developed their skills to be able to speak in large groups and deal with young people with very challenging behaviour. The volunteer’s confidence is nurtured by Move On and develops over time so that they can deliver to small groups of 2, or larger ones of up to 30.

The volunteers are supported by staff in many ways, including formal support and supervision, monthly volunteer meetings and training nights, a weekly drop in and informally support before and after workshops.

The support we offer aims to build confidence, grow self esteem and introduce stability to the volunteers lives. Staff are skilled at helping the volunteers to help themselves by building relationships with them based on trust and mutual respect, and challenging them where appropriate.

Workshops

Total number of workshops	314
Delivery at conferences / training days to staff and adults	17
Mainstream schools in Edinburgh	216
Core work including residential schools etc	81
Total number of workshops	297

During 2005-2006 our homeless and ex-homeless volunteers have facilitated, (with staff support) a total of 314 workshops on housing options, homelessness issues and independent living skills to their peers in settings from Mainstream Schools to national conferences.

216 of these were delivered to nearly 1800 pupils in 23 mainstream schools in Edinburgh. 81 were delivered to vulnerable young people across Edinburgh, Lothian’s, Fife and Stirling. This year has seen an increase in organisations and agencies approaching Move On to deliver at conferences and development days for staff, the volunteers have delivered 17 various sessions and workshops at 6 different events from Edinburgh to Crieff.

In addition our programmes were tailored to meet the specific needs of different groups and targeted new contacts, some examples include working with Autistic Spectrum young people, students from University who were travelling to help street children in Mexico, young careers and lots of new schools across the central belt of Scotland. Move On piloted a 10 week life skills programme with the schools leavers of SEBD schools, which due to the high success rate has now a regular place on the timetable, for both summer and Christmas leavers. Of a group of 8 young people, two went on to access the Mentoring Project, two went on to train as volunteer peer educators and two regularly drop in to see staff and volunteers of Move On.