PEOPLE AT RISK
Grants are made to organisations which help people at risk to access the direct support they are looking for, secure more permanent accommodation, achieve economic self-reliance and re-connect with important family and social networks.
Over the past dozen years, the trust has provided considerable help towards these objectives through homelessness projects which recognise that housing is only part of the solution and therefore also provide a range of support services, social, educational and economic. In 2003 the trustees commissioned Lemos & Crane, the social researchers, to work with Thames Reach Bondway, Alone in London and St Basil’s in Birmingham on the Dreams Deferred report which identified the clear benefit of helping service users to recover their place within family, friendships and wider society and of placing their frustrated dreams and aspirations at the heart of services thus more likely to be successful. The resulting toolkit for project workers has considerably enhanced relations with users leading to much more appropriate support and personal solutions.
In 2004 and 2005, the trustees again worked with Lemos & Crane and Thames Reach Bondway to develop the Dreams Deferred method into the Support Action Net, a comprehensive training and good practice network and web portal for agencies across the country addressing virtually any need encountered by people at risk.
The trust aims to support projects that are pioneering approaches, such as self-help and peer support groups, self-build housing, peer education and training, and the provision of employment or work experience, especially for the young or those vulnerable through mental health or substance problems.
Young People
- Alone in London (organisational support over a period of nine years)
Well known for its work with teenagers who turn up in central London after a family breakdown, Alone in London has offered shelter to thousands, protecting many from the risks of life on the streets, drugs and prostitution. Over the years its expertise with young people has led to trusted mediation between young people and their family members, whether enabling a reconciliation, a return home or helping people to come to terms as parents and children move on in life. Alone in London has recently joined forces with Circle Anglia, one of the UK’s largest housing groups, based in East Anglia and South East England, to provide its unique approach to young people at risk across the entire region. The trustees’ grant is helping Alone in London to build up a wider network involving other mediation services across the UK.
http://www.als.org.uk/
Homelessness
- Thames Reach Bondway (organisational support over a period of nine years)
Ashden’s long standing association with Thames Reach Bondway ranges from the pioneering development of a programme of peer education for homeless people, now firmly embedded at the City Lit, to the no less innovative research on homeless people’s own aspirations and networks, Lemos & Crane’s Dreams Deferred, as the key to lasting resettlement and greater personal fulfilment away from the dangers of the street and insecure accommodation. In collaboration with Bridge House Estates Trust and other funders, Ashden has supported the development of Support Action Net, a training and dissemination programme of good practice offered by a wide range of agencies supporting people at risk and addressing almost any kind of problem, from drugs to housing, and arts and leisure to family mediation. The website and internet portal can be found at
http://www.supportactionnet.org.uk - Society of St James (organisational support over a period of seven years)
Established originally as a shelter run by Southampton’s churches, St James’s now offers a day centre, a hostel, outreach among rough sleepers, a wet-home for older homeless people with severe health problems and a range of halfway house flats for people getting back on their feet as they find their way back in to work and family networks. As part of its wide range of resettlement and training projects, St James’s has won business and local authority contracts for recycling computer equipment, offering accredited training for project members and supplying markets for reconditioned computers locally and in developing countries.
http://www.ssj.org.uk/ - St Basil's Centre (organisational support over a period of seven years)
From its day centre in the heart of Birmingham, St Basil’s supports over a dozen accommodation projects in the city and neighbouring communities, especially targeting the needs and aspirations of young people. A partner with the trust, like Alone in London, in developing the Dreams Deferred method and more recently the Support Action Net, it has built up a full range of services for young people living in its projects and others using the day centre. Floating support teams ensure that help is always at hand while at the same time they enable people to find their own solutions and grow in confidence and self-reliance. For some with depression and other mental wellbeing experiences this pathway is more challenging. Ashden’s grants over several years have supported a mental health floating team to provide specialist help and support.
http://www.stbasils.org.uk/ - Groundswell UK (organisational support over a period of five years)
Groundswell is the voice of homeless people themselves, those sleeping rough, people making use of services in centres and hostels, and also the hidden homeless in temporary accommodation, or in their friends’ flats and houses. Working in partnership with homeless people has been essential to tackling rough sleeping and devising services that meet the needs they identify, instead of merely those which government or the voluntary sector organisations traditionally thought should be offered. In fact, most homeless people want a way out of their circumstances and find similar opportunities to everyone else’s, but lack the resources to do so. Ashden’s grants have provided bursaries and travel costs for an extended training programme to build homeless people’s skills and capacity.
http://www.groundswell.org.uk/ - The Porch Steppin’ Stone Centre (organisational support over a period of six years)
In 1986 the sisters of the All Saints’ Convent in east Oxford turned over their entrance building, known as the Porch, to feeding and clothing the homeless. Over the years it developed a life of its own, shaped by strong user involvement, and has now moved across the road into a new café, arts & crafts activity and training centre in the sisters’ old workshops. A number of the members took advantage of vacancies at some nearby allotments and now form a co-operative providing their café with over 25% of its annual vegetable and salad needs, as well as offering produce for sale to the local community from the seven plots they now run. In summer 2004 the members won 10 first prizes at the local horticultural show and 4 at the Royal Oxfordshire Horticultural Show. Ashden’s grants have helped to build in accreditation and training into this success, covering the whole process from growing food to preparing nutritious meals and catering at the café.
http://theporch.org.uk/
Prisons
- Prison Phoenix Trust (organisational support over a period of ten years)
As many as nine out of ten prisoners face at least one form of mental wellbeing problem. There is considerable risk of self-harm and suicide as a number of prisoners find it difficult to cope. A number also realise that behind a pattern of offending behaviour lie problems with anger and relations with others that can go back to childhood and remain unresolved. There are a number of excellent courses to help with anger and behaviour but Prison Phoenix Trust seeks to affect not only the external effects of offenders’ problems but also their inner turmoil. With the help of peer mentors and volunteers from the community prisoners of any faith and none learn to use the techniques of Buddhist meditation to come to terms with their experiences in life and in prison. This can help people out of depression and thoughts of self harm and lead to a positive effect on serving out a sentence and eventual resettlement with family, friends and community.
http://www.prisonphoenixtrust.org.uk/
