National Youth Homelessness Scheme

Case Study 3: Mapping it out: working with local authorities to identify schools to work with

Subject: Working with schools
Organisation: St Christopher's Fellowship, London (externaL link)

St Christopher's is a voluntary organisation working across the UK and the Isle of Man, providing a range of services for children, young people and vulnerable adults, including fostering. These include family support and mediation work, supported accommodation, advice services and education and training support.

The work St Christopher's is doing with schools began in November 2006, targeting 14 - 16 year olds and is taking place in 2 London boroughs, Greenwich and Southwark. Funding has come from a voluntary sector grant in Greenwich and in Southwark via the second Public Service Agreement which is incorporated into the Local Area Agreement.

The project has had an immediate and measurable impact on the young people involved, who report increased knowledge of homelessness policy, available services and the impact of independent living.  It is too early in the process to measure the impact on homeless presentations to local authorities, however this will be monitored and reviewed.

Setting up a strategic foundation for the work

Both of the boroughs that St Christopher's is working with are undertaking a mapping exercise into youth homelessness to identify the areas of the boroughs which are most at risk. This is taking place at a corporate level, through their policy and performance units.

St Christopher's believes this strategic approach to understanding the baseline position for youth homelessness is helpful, as it joins up information often held in different parts of local authorities, such as housing and children's departments.

The approach has led to the targeting of work to 5 schools in Greenwich and then monitoring the impact of the work from the baseline position. Interestingly, the schools with the highest levels of young people who go on to present as homeless are not necessarily the ones in the areas which score most highly on other indicators of deprivation.

The strategic approach to championing the work by the commissioning bodies has also helped to market the work to schools, opening up communication channels with Head Teachers through the networks within the local authorities. St Christopher's then goes on to make contact with the school, usually with the Head of PSHE and Citizenship.

Using peer educators to deliver work in schools

St Christopher's is recruiting young people aged 16 - 24 who have experience of homelessness to become peer educators. As well as recruiting from within St Christopher's, other young people have been given the opportunity to take part through a recruitment campaign that has targeted other supported accommodation providers and training organisations. Young people need to be referred by an organisation.

Peer educators complete a 30 hour training course, which is in the process of being accredited by the Open College Network as Level 1 in Peer Education. The accredited course covers areas such as presentation skills, basic skills, confidentiality issues and professional boundaries. The training is portfolio based..

As well as paying expenses St Christopher's is also exploring how to give young people incentives for giving up their time to take part. Training sessions are held in central locations to allow access to as many peer educators as possible.

Recruiting, training and supporting young people who are peer educators takes time, but is an approach which St Christopher's is committed to. The impact of the training, in terms of work readiness, personal development and increasing knowledge is key to the success of the project as a whole.

Top tips

St Christopher's top tips for developing work with schools:

  • Have a strategic involvement with the local authority and get them to help with marketing the work
  • Take time to develop the training programme and make sure it takes into account the local authority's key strategic aims on youth homelessness
  • Invest time in building relationships with schools, the local authority and other partner agencies
  • Give yourself a long lead in time to set the work up in schools
  • Make sure you allow lots of time to recruit, train and support young people as peer educators.

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