St Basils' supported accommodation scheme in Bromsgrove for young people has held its official launch; 'New Road' which provides a home and skills training for 16 – 25 year olds was officially opened on Tuesday 27th September.
St Basils was awarded £1.5 million of Supporting People funding in 2009 to develop housing related support services for young people in North Worcestershire and as well as Bromsgrove it now has similar schemes in Redditch and Kidderminster.
The Bromsgrove accommodation scheme, which was built by WM Housing Group, is staffed 24 hours a day and is committed to the same principles as St Basils’ 24 Birmingham schemes ensuring that everyone who lives at St Basils is encouraged to take up education, training or employment and making use of on-site facilities, engages in Learning, Skills and Work programmes, to improve their chances of employability and ultimately independence.
With funding from the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), WM Housing Group commissioned the purpose-built Bromsgrove scheme liaising with Walker Troup Architects to ensure that, as well as providing spacious self-contained flats, the scheme offered well equipped communal areas and ICT training facilities. With 15 young people moved in, the scheme is now full and already starting to make a difference to the young people who live there.
One of the young residents who moved there in February 2011 said; “It’s great to know this help is available if people need it, and for me this scheme has turned a negative situation into a positive one; I’m training to be a youth worker myself now and it’s the help and support I’ve had here that has inspired me to do that. I really like living here; it’s great to have that community feel, that there’s activities I can go and join in with and staff on hand to help if I need it, but I’ve got my own space as well. It’s a great step towards independence.”
The Foyer was opened at a well attended lunchtime launch event by the Deputy Civic Head of Bromsgrove District Council, Councillor Janice Boswell.
Roger Griffiths, Janice Boswell and Jean Templeton
Councillor Boswell said; “This is a delightful place; I am so pleased to be here, it makes so many people happy and gives young people a new lease of life. Everyone involved in the project including the designers, the builders and the funders think it’s working really well and with St Basils heading up the scheme I knew it would, because what they do works, and they have been doing it for a long time”.
Roger Griffiths, Chair of the Board at WM Housing Group said;
“This is a purpose built project and it’s achieving what it set out to do. It’s great to see local young people getting back into education and moving onto better things. It is a remarkable example of a partnership working well, it is well built and well managed and the evidence of that is in the support we now have from the local community”.
Helen Wilkes, Area Manager for the HCA, said: “We see these schemes at first as just the design on paper, so days like this are great when we can come along to see it working in practice - to understand what works well and what needs to be changed. We have a long history of working with St Basils and WM Housing Group and as a result are confident we can always be sure of a good outcome”.
Emma Poole, Service Manager of St Basils North Worcestershire schemes said;
“It was a pleasure to see so many people attend the official opening of the New Road Foyer and showing their support for the project. The scheme has proved to be a great success, providing a safe and caring environment for the young people of Bromsgrove to gain independent living skills and achieve their aspirations. This is down to the dedication, hard work and commitment from our partners, funders, staff team and residents”.
Please click on the following link for more information about our North Worcestershire projects
