A new drive to buddy up young people with positive role models to help prevent youth homelessness was announced by Housing Minister Iain Wright.
Whilst the number of young people under 25 becoming homeless last quarter fell by more than 1,000 (15%) compared to the previous year, they still account for 39% of all new cases of homelessness.
Peer mentoring has made a difference in preventing homelessness by providing support at a crucial time for young people who may be experiencing personal difficulties or family breakdowns. Family intervention and mediation can also be key in stopping young people at risk from making the step to leaving home by working together to identify the problems and move together to a solution.
The Government wants to encourage all local authorities to offer these services as part of a new strategy to drive down youth homelessness, alongside other approaches such as supported lodgings.
A young person can become buddied up in a number of ways. They can be referred to the scheme by their school, by a local authority or a housing organisation, or they may simply apply direct for support having heard of the scheme through word of mouth or seeing a leaflet or poster in their local community.
Peer mentors, like the young people they help, may come from any number of backgrounds, though many have first hand experience of homelessness. They may help a young person at risk from homelessness through offering practical advice over a coffee, or by pointing the way to local services or local educational or training opportunities - or by simply being around to listen.
Communities and Local Government and the Department for Children, Schools and Families launched the publication Joint working between housing and children's services: Preventing homelessness and tackling its effects on Children and young people at the National Youth Homelessness Conference.
The guidance focuses on four groups of children and young people who have been identified as being at particular risk of poor outcomes in the absence of effective joint working between Housing Services, Children's Services and their partners:
It includes case studies of good and emerging practice, together with links to other guidance, information and resources available to assist strategic managers and commissioners to implement change.
www.communities.gov.uk/youthhomelessness
Residents of St Mungo's hostels gave the Government direct advice on its proposed new strategy to reduce rough sleeping.
Three members of Outside In, St Mungo's resident group, met with Communities and Local Government officials in Covent Garden to provide feedback on their recently released discussion paper: Rough Sleeping 10 Years On.
Consultation on this discussion paper will feed into a new three-year strategy to reduce the number of rough sleepers and improve their employment, skills and health outcomes.
The Conservative Party launched is Homelessness Foundation, which will attempt to identify solutions for the thousands of families without a permanent address.
Leaders of all the major homeless charities have agreed to sit on the Foundation's advisory panel - including John Bird, founder and editor of The Big Issue, Shelter's chief executive Adam Sampson, Crisis chief executive Lesley Morphy, Charles Fraser, chief executive of St Mungo's, Homeless Link chief executive Jenny Edwards and Jeremy Swain, chief executive of Thames Reach.
The Foundation will look at some of the possible root causes of homelessness, including issues such as poverty, housing affordability, mental health, employment, children who slip through the net after leaving care and military personnel struggling to fit back into society after service.
A film highlighting the dangers of youth homelessness is being held up as a benchmark project for local authorities across London.
Commissioned by Lambeth Council, The Prodigals is a film with an accompanying training pack that has been developed as an educational resource for schools and youth clubs. Its success has been acknowledged by the Government, who awarded the Council a £60,000 grant to roll the project out London-wide.
Filmed on locations in Lambeth, the film explores the links between family conflict and youth homelessness. With a thumping soundtrack and accompanying music videos, the film highlights the realities and struggles of homelessness.
he DVD film and training resource has been sent to all secondary schools and colleges in Lambeth. It is being used by the Council as a more effective way of delivering a number of messages to young people about the dangers of leaving home without the life skills to cope on their own.
