Last month, the St Basils Youth Hub, which provides face to face advice and help to young people at risk of homelessness, moved from premises on Fazeley Street around the corner to St Basils church on Heath Mill Lane.
The church is where St Basils services to young people originated. The late Revd Les Milner opened up the church hall area to young men in 1972 to give them basic shelter for the night. The area could sleep 18 in dormitory style beds.
The service known as ‘the Boot’ moved from St Basils Church in 1988 when ‘the New Boot’ (later renamed Milner Court) opened in Bordesley, which remains our emergency accommodation project for young men. Meanwhile the front of St Basils church and the church hall area were converted into offices and became St Basils headquarters from 1988 – 2012.
St Basils face to face advice service originally known as ‘The Link’ was founded in 1978 and has had a number of premises around Birmingham city centre. The service became integrated within the Youth Hub in November 2010 and is now a service provided in partnership with Birmingham City Council’s homeless and children’s services and provides access to five other Supporting People funded housing related support and accommodation services for young people including Trident Reach, Bromford Support, Maypole, Moseley & District and YMCA's Orchards.
The Youth Hub provides a free helpline called Youthline on 0300 303 0099. Young people in Birmingham can ring this number for advice or to book an appointment at the Youth Hub, which is also the first point of call to access accommodation services from St Basils and works with:
- All 16 / 17 year olds who are homeless or threatened with homelessness
- All 18-21 year olds (without children) who are homeless or threatened with homelessness.
- All 18-21 year olds who are pregnant, and are homeless or threatened with homelessness.
Marsha Blake, Manager of the Youth Hub said: “The Youth Hub has been successful in providing quality prevention advice, support and easy access to important statutory services.It has become a busy and dynamic front line service for young people in need of housing assistance. In order to continue to deliver a high quality service and enable the Youth Hub to grow and develop, the decision was made to move to new premises. It seems only fitting that in St Basils 40th year of operation the St Basils church premises have gone full circle and are once again providing a vital service to young people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Liaising with St Basils young residents the venue has undergone a full refurbishment to ensure it provides a welcoming environment to young people in need.“
The Youth Hub hopes to hold a formal opening later in the year. St Basils Headquarters are now based across the road from the church. Directions are available to download from our website: www.stbasils.org.uk/contactus#directions
For a full history of St Basils please visit our Timeline page.
Added July 2012
