your name, in what capacity you are here today (work/church/personal interest) and … what...
TRANSCRIPT
Night Shelters – a successful model and the Housing Justice Quality Mark (HJQM)
Your name, in what capacity you are here today (work/church/personal interest)
and …
What interested you about this workshop or what question would you like answered?
Introductions
An opportunity to...
◦find out more about how Church Night Shelters are supporting homeless people across England and Wales
◦find out more about how they work and how you can set one up
◦ask questions and share personal experiences
Welcome
◦Rolling church model – more recently including mosques, synagogues, temples
◦Building an inter-faith community◦7 venues – model variations
◦Volunteers – team leaders, shift leaders, cooks, welcomers, cleaners, activity leaders
◦Hospitality – the primary focus
◦‘Guest’ vs ‘Client’ distinction◦Creating an environment conducive to
personal transformation
What are Church and Community Night Shelters?
Headlines from the 2013/2014 Season
◦Almost £1.5 million worth of volunteer time.
◦112,300 volunteer hours across 24 Night Shelters
◦Open for 2,380 nights, offering 42,161 bed places in just under 450 Churches, Church Halls, Synagogues and Mosques.
Impact across England and Wales
What was achieved ...◦1,577 guests were offered overnight
shelter for varying periods of time; of whom 491 received some sort of move on accommodation, which is a 34% move on rate!
◦A total of 934 had some form of case management support (almost 60% of the total).
IImpact across Wales and England
Night Shelters take people who are actually homeless◦ the majority of guests are neither sofa surfers, nor
vulnerably housed i.e. ‘hidden homeless’ but are actually street homeless i.e. ‘rough sleepers’
◦ The Iceberg Analogy◦ New to the street, living on the street, returners◦ “Manchester now has more rough sleepers than anywhere
outside London” – Manchester Evening News, Mar 2015◦ Church and Community Night Shelters provide a valuable
additional safety net, preventing people from having to sleep on the street
Debunking myths around shelter projects
◦Local need and working in partnership
◦Cinnamon Network Start up funding
◦Housing Justice Support
◦HJ Quality Mark Good Practice- equipping and supporting churches and communities
What is involved in setting one up?
What is it?
A quality standards review arising from partnership collaboration and 25 years of experience supporting shelters
In 2014 Housing Justice (HJ) was awarded Homeless Transition Funding for an accreditation scheme
HJQM supports improvements, creates a system of accountability and awards good and excellent standards in Shelter practice in England and Wales
What is it?
Shelter In A Pack
The first Shelter handbook/guide for churches and community groups who want some support with setting up a CCNS
Based on the experience and work of Housing Justice, it brings together good practice, policies and procedures for CCNS
It was commissioned by HJ, funded by a grant from the Church Urban Fund and first launched in autumn 2010
It comprises:-1. a why?, whether? and how? to set up a shelter2. template docs in the form of a toolkit to be
customised for each new project
What is it?
Find out what other Charities and Faith groups are doing, i.e. drop- ins, floating support, outreach teams?
Is there a local Christian/Homelessness Forum? Speak to someone in the housing department in your local Council, e.g. officers with
responsibility for commissioning homelessness services. What is their cold weather provision? Is it over subscribed?
What is your Local Authority’s Homelessness Strategy? Obtain statistical data on local need. Contact those that are working with the people who would be your potential guests.
Seeking the views of potential guests e.g. people using local day centres would be very valuable.
Find out what provision there is, if any, for those with no recourse to public funds, migrants and asylum seekers?
Seek to develop good relationships. If you go ahead with a CCNS project, working in partnership for referrals, support and move on always leads to better outcomes for guests. Projects that have been running for a while will have knowledge of guests including risk factors and particular gaps in local services.
Homeless UK and Homeless London are useful sources of information on local homeless agencies e.g. hostels and day centres. They will be useful contacts to make in relation to local need and also to discuss where the gaps are in current services
Networking & Cross-Sector Working
Find out about accommodation and emergency provision in the area; avoid duplication where possible- could you be supporting an existing service that is struggling for volunteers?
The Narrowgate project…http://citymission.org.uk/projects/narrowgate/
Introducing Martin Crowhurst, Manager
Networking & Cross-Sector Working
The Model & Timing Pilot Year? Project Coordinator & Team Leaders Roles Practicalities: facilities, equipment, women, smoking area,
recreational facilities, personal washing facilities, laundry, clothing, food
Health & Safety: risk assessments, first aid, fire safety, food hygiene, safeguarding & DBS checks, emergency contacts, alcohol/drugs/violence
Planning Permission and Insurance Clear Admissions/Referrals Procedure: partnership
working, guest move-on, linking in to the shelter network
Monitoring & Evaluating: Get The Data, data spreadsheet
Governance & Structure
Meeting with Primary Vision Carriers to ascertain vision, context, potential partners to collaborate with etc.
Meeting of Venue Team Leaders: to establish best practice and practical advice on running a Shelter and establishing values that group works to
Volunteer training that meets the requirements of the HJQM
Volunteer Handbook and V&V Register
Nightly Volunteer Briefings before Opening Up
HJ ‘Introduction to Homelessness’ Training
Volunteers & Training
Project: Confidentiality Policy, Data protection Policy, Violence Policy, Drugs & Alcohol Policy, Health & Safety Policy, Equal Opportunities Policy, Nightly Risk Assessment, Infectious Disease Leaflet
Project Coordinator/Team Leader: Log Book, Daily Log Sheet, Emergency Contacts, Incident Form, Guest Map, Guest Agreement, Guest Registration, Guest Referral Form, Guest Referral Procedure, Guest Information Consent Form, Guest Feedback Form
Volunteers: Volunteer Registration, Volunteer Information Pack, Volunteer Rota, Volunteer Handbook, Volunteer Agreement, V&V Register, Volunteer Feedback Form
Po Policies & Paperwork
HJ CCNS Aim:To develop the culture and practise of Christian
hospitality to homeless people that leads to personal transformation, thus providing the
foundation for movement away from the streets and towards ‘home’
Develop a robust culture of hospitality that can withstand constant challenge
There are wider community benefits See examples of Tower Hamlets and Islington project aims See HJ ‘Night Shelter IMPACT Report 2013/14’
Shelter Aims & Objectives
Initial Contact
Preparing for the visit: Pre-QM Questionnaire
The Visit: paperwork evidence review; project evidence review; accreditation checklist
Feedback to QM Partner
Award Standards: accredited excellent practise; accredited safe practise; working towards accreditation; inadequate provision
HJQM Accreditation
