The Prevention Service is central to the work of St Basils and is made up of a network of services that are designed to reduce the numbers of young people who become homeless or need to move home in an unplanned way.
Our starting point is that primary prevention of homelessness makes the young persons journey into adult life more successful and less traumatic, where some one has to move from home we believe the more planned and open that process the better.
The Prevention Service has three elements:
- Home Options
which sites specialist staff in local housing offices and provides a specific service to young people
- ‘The Link’
which is our city centre based housing advice and access point for young people
- Family Mediation
which supports young people and families to address some of the underlying problems that may create situations that lead to young people leaving home in an unplanned way
Although each element of the network is sustainable in its own right we believe the combination provides an excellent vehicle for primary and secondary prevention.
The Prevention Service has been successful in helping young people to remain at home and rebuild relationships with families; it has been successful in ensuring that where a move from home is necessary, it happens in the most planned way possible.
The challenge facing us
The transition from adolescence to adult life is a challenging one and for some young people it can be traumatic and have long term impacts on their adult life.
Most of the young people we work with have minimal support networks and resources.
Some young people see leaving home as being the solution to their problems and yet it may make things worse and put them at risk of becoming more socially excluded.
Some families find supporting a young person through their journey to adult life a very challenging task and parents and young people may not have the experiences or resources to deal with this challenge successfully.
The challenge facing services is to engage with young people and families in time to reduce the risk of homelessness and to ensure that if a move away from home is inevitable that it happens in a planned and sustainable way.
