There are usually several factors that combine to cause a crisis situation for a young person that results in homelessness, we therefore provide support in several different ways to intervene early enough to prevent a crisis occurring.
Where possible, St Basils aims to prevent young people from becoming homeless in the first place. We offer prevention services at all the locations we work in across the West Midlands region, which include one or more of the following:
Face to face Advice services
Our Youth Hubs in Birmingham and Solihull are both multi-agency services delivered in partnership with respectively Birmingham City Council and Solihull Town District Council’s Homeless Services and Children’s Services. This means young people are able to access specialist help and advice from a variety of local providers all in one place.
The Youth Hubs offer a variety of different services including assistance in preventing homelessness, advice and help applying for housing options, benefits advice, help maintaining tenancies, and much more.
The Youth Hub will assess a young person’s needs and where needed refer them to the most appropriate local providers. Accommodation and support provided could be from St Basils or another local provider, or a combination, with several agencies working in partnership to assist a young person.
In the other locations in which we operate face to face advice and assessment is provided by other agencies or the local council. St Basils is then one of the organisations young people are referred onto for support.
Family mediation
St Basils believes that, if safe, the family home is the best place for a young person to stay. It is one of the options staff review with young people and in some areas they may be referred to Family Mediation Services to help ensure this remains a viable option. It is not about taking sides but improving communication channels between family members.
We also periodically offer other kinds of support to parents of young people through our projects that focus on Psychological Approaches. To read more about Family Mediation, please click here.
Floating Support
This service also called ‘Support at Home’ helps prevent youth homelessness by providing support to young people who have been identified as at risk of homelessness, in their current accommodation.
Floating Support offers one to one support to help a young person identify and reach their goals. We offer an approach tailored to the needs of the young person. This can include support with;
- Finances, i.e accessing the right benefits
- Obtaining work, i.e applying for jobs, writing a CV
- Household skills, i.e shopping on a budget, meal planning and preparation
- Health and hygiene, i.e registering with a GP
- Social skills, i.e accessing support groups
Accessing these services
If you need any of these services please see the Get Help section for contact details for your area.