St Basils in Bromsgrove - Floating Support

St Basils supports young people aged 16-25 years to prevent them from becoming homeless.

St Basils success and ultimately the success of the young person is dependent on the working relationships and partnerships that we have developed over thirty eight years of operating in the field of homelessness.

Our aim is to prevent a young person from leaving home too early or in an unplanned way and to equip them with the necessary skills to live independently. We will work with the young person if they have left home and find themselves in crisis to stabilise their situation, help them find suitable accommodation and support them through to independence.

North Worcestershire

We provide a range of support services in North Worcestershire including Bromsgrove: supported accommodation; prevention services; housing aid and advice; family mediation; peer educating and mentoring service linked with the Schools homeless prevention programme; key workers, learning skills and work; advice and guidance on education, employment and training; resettlement and floating support. See link to leaflet below.

Floating Support Services in Bromsgrove

See link to latest Bromsgrove newsletter below.

Floating support is provided to the young person through our services in Bromsgrove. Support workers work alongside the young person and with agencies in the local area to help meet the needs and aspirations of the young person. We are able to offer around 5 hours of support a week to each young person and therefore are able to offer the level of support that is required.

We provide our own education, employment and training service, with family mediation, peer mentors and peer educatorsworking on the prevention of youth homelessness across Bromsgrove. Where necessary we will bring in local agencies such as drug and alcohol workers or other specialist services and youth agencies.

Our trained and qualified support workers work with young people to address their issues to be able to help them move on to independent living.

When St Basils staff receive a referral they will make an appointment to meet with the young person and assess their situation, their needs and to identify any risks to themselves or others. Quite often young people will access our service in crisis, when things have got so bad that they really need help to put their lives back on track. This can be for all sorts of reasons including family break down, getting into debt, alcohol or drug related issues, moving out of care or a history of offending.

More often the issues are simply that there is no family or support network to help the young person with the basic skills they need to maintain their tenancy or to access training and employment.

The young person and support worker will agree an action plan of support. The support worker will meet with the young person to support them with the issues identified.This may be to seek accommodation, work with their family to allow them to continue to live at home or to liaise with the landlord to avoid eviction. It may be that we help the young person to claim for any benefits they may be entitled to and support them in getting into education or employment.

There may be other identified risks e.g. mental health, alcohol or drug dependency or offending history.Where this is the case, the support worker will help the client access the appropriate services specific to their needs for example the Community Alcohol Team (CAT). We may refer the young person to supported accommodation that is specifically for ex-offenders or for those with mental health issues, or on to a women’s refuge.

St Basils offers the ‘Life Skills’ program where the young person gains an educational qualification that is accredited by OCN. The benefits of these qualifications for the young person can be the first step on the ladder for further education or employment. They may be ready to move on to independent living equipped with the appropriate skills e.g. budgeting and financial management. St Basils also runs a Peer Mentoring program where young people can achieve a qualification and volunteer to mentor other young people threatened with homelessness.

Support workers constantly assess the young person’s needs and progress.

We have already provided services to over 25 of Bromsgrove’s young people, many more in Redditch and Kidderminster under the terms of our North Worcestershire Supporting People Contract.

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