Lichfield Nightstop
| Published: 16th August 2007 21:06 |
Could you help a desperate young person?
Lichfield Nighstop - A Beginners Guide
SO JUST WHAT IS NIGHTSTOP ANYWAY?
Lichfield Nightstop is about providing safe, emergency overnight accommodation for young people in the homes of volunteer hosts, on a one to three night-at-a-time basis. It will bring single homeless people aged between 16-25 years together with people who are willing to offer them a spare room for the night. Lichfield Nightstop is responsible for recruiting, training and supporting volunteer host families and ensuring that the homeless young person on Nightstop can access appropriate accommodation.
THERE CAN'T BE THAT MANY HOMELESS YOUNG PEOPLE CAN THERE?
There are!! It is not only those people who present themselves to the council that are classed as homeless-those are just the ones that we know about! There are many who remain unknown, the ‘hidden homeless', for example those people staying in Bed & Breakfasts or ‘Sofa Surfing' at various friends or relatives.
WHAT SORT OF PEOPLE LET HOMELESS YOUNG PEOPLE INTO THEIR HOMES?
All sorts of people volunteer to become hosts for Nightstop. There is no ‘standard' host. Some people are professional people, such as teachers, doctors and social workers. Others are unemployed or retired. There are single men, women, couples and families. We need to recruit as many hosts' as we can, in order to be able to offer the right accommodation for the young homeless person.
WHAT SORT OF PEOPLE BECOME HOMELESS?
There are many reasons why a young person becomes homeless. Some of the most widely stated reasons are: a breakdown in a relationship whether with parents or partners, eviction, parents become unemployed, young people fleeing abusive situations at home, financial problems, illness, the list could go on! There are no stereotypical ‘Nightstoppers' just as there are no stereotypical hosts. Young people from varying different backgrounds and cultures find themselves homeless, a lot of the time through no fault of their own.
ISN'T BEING A HOST A BIT DANGEROUS?
Becoming a host can seem a bit of a risk. After all, as a host you would be taking a complete stranger into your home. It is rather scary for the young person as well; they are going into a complete stranger's house and staying there the night, how many of us would have been able to do that at 16? The project coordinator is there to try to minimise any risk. There are many policies and procedures in place to do this. The young person is screened very carefully and host's are carefully recruited and trained. The training that the host's undergo covers many issues. Topics such as security in their own home, some reasons for homelessness and the problems that some young people face etc. The volunteers are well supported in their hosting by the project coordinator, and a 24 hr emergency number and on-call support team means that support and assistance is always close at hand.
WHAT DO THE HOSTS GET OUT OF IT?
On a personal level the hosts gain a lot of satisfaction from meeting the young people and providing a place of safety and security for them. Being a host is a very personal response to homelessness within your local community. On a more social side, they get to meet a wide variety of people, from varying backgrounds; they also have social evenings and training events to meet at. Nightstop hosts will receive a token payment of expenses to go a little way in covering the expenses of hosting a Nightstop guest.
For more information about Lichfield Nightstop and Mediation contact the Nightstop Project Manager on -
01543 405 800 or 07825 420 845
or email: Nichola.Durso@midlandheart.org.uk
Alternatively you can visit the Nightstop UK website at www.nightstop-uk.org
If you want to read more about what it means to be a Nightstop Host then click on 'Lichfield Nightstop - Host Information'.
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