World Homeless Day is being marked universally this Saturday (10 October) with the aim of highlighting local initiatives combatting homelessness within communities.
Our innovative Street Buddies outreach programme is seeing breakthroughs in helping people living on the streets in the borough to find a roof over their heads.
Street Buddies is a unique outreach service led by volunteers and trainees who have their own history of rough sleeping. The volunteers and trainees use their own experience of turning their lives around to engage with entrenched rough sleepers and support them away from the streets.
Area Manager, Steve Davies, explained: “Street Buddies is a peer support initiative involving former homeless volunteers and trainees to make contact with rough sleepers. They are ‘experts by experience’ who have been trained in tackling the issues of substance use and mental health, working with entrenched rough sleepers, some of whom been living on the streets for decades.
“Our Street Buddies’ background gives them an empathetic advantage and the success of the model has been overwhelming. The Street Buddies team has built up trusting relationships with rough sleepers, showing that they have made a dramatic change to their lives and moved away from the streets.
“Street Buddies’ volunteers are seen as peers not professionals and are often more successful in engaging with rough sleepers who might otherwise be reluctant to engage with professionals.”
Ed* has slept rough in Westminster for more than fifteen years. He developed mental and physical health issues after not having proper contact with health services during his time on the streets. He relied on handouts due to having no regular income. Although he admitted to feeling isolated, Ed refused to engage with other outreach services who have tried to help him in the past.
Street Buddies gained Ed’s trust over six months and helped him address his need of finding accommodation. The team are now helping him access resources from a local day centre and helping him find suitable housing so that he doesn’t spend another winter on the streets.
Street Buddies also adopts our GROW (Giving Real Opportunities for Work) programme, a scheme which provides work opportunities for its formerly homeless customers. The 10-month contract gives people experience in the sector to move forward to secure permanent employment.
Jeff** who was formerly homeless, began volunteering with Street Buddies in 2014. He said: “My motivation to get into this line of work was to help people that had similar experiences of homelessness and addiction as me.
“I started volunteering with Street Buddies because I wanted to help but I also knew that by immersing myself in challenging situations and social interactions, it was very good way of helping my own anxieties.
“My self-confidence has benefited tremendously through working with Street Buddies.” Jeff now works as a Support Worker in one of our supported housing schemes in Westminster.
World Homeless Day is marked this Saturday (10 October) to draw attention to homeless people’s needs locally and provide opportunities for the community to get involved in responding to homelessness, while taking advantage of the stage an ‘international day’ provides. For more information visit: www.worldhomelessday.org.
For further details about Street Buddies, or to find out how to get involved, contact Riverside Team Leader Louise Simonsen on 07831 590256.
Follow @Street_Buddies on Twitter.