#iwill provides opportunities to prevent youth homelessness

This week is #iwillweek. Herts Young Homeless used their #iwill grants to help young people who have experienced homelessness to rebuild their lives

The UK wide #iwill campaign is a collaboration between the Offices for Civil Society and Big Lottery Fund to increase the number of young people taking part in social action.

As part of the campaign HCF received a pot of £30,000 to award in grants for youth social action projects that have a positive impact on the wider community. This was generously match funded by the Police and Crime Commissioner.

Herts Young Homeless (hyh), an independent charity which aims to prevent youth homelessness, successfully applied for two grants (totalling £5,000) from the #iwill fund. The grants went towards the running of iPro, their service user involvement project.
iPro actively involves current and ex-services users in the running of hyh and supports them to become more independent to make more positive and informed choices and to rebuild their confidence and self-esteem. The project also provides members with opportunities to access training and education, volunteering opportunities to raise the awareness of homeless issues to their peers and to organise fundraising events for the charity.

It is a peer-group environment where iPro’s meet others who have been through similar experiences and develop good social links where they can enjoy themselves and feel understood and supported, often for the first time in their young lives.

As a result of receiving the grants hyh were able to further develop the iPro project into a new service model called Live Life, defining goals and targets to grow the project. They are also measuring the outcomes of members through their tool called the 'record of success' to reflect the amazing journeys these young people take.

Story of Change:
Cedric was kicked out of his Dad’s at age 17 and tells his story below.

"I went to the police. My Dad still didn’t allow me to go back home and said that I needed to go. Police dropped me off to my brother.

At that time I was doing 6th form and things became a bit harder. I struggled and was getting very low. At some point my brother had to move out of his place and I felt I was taking too much of his space. I wanted to get more independent. I got in touch with Connexions in Stevenage and they connected me with Herts Young Homeless, who helped me to get into a hostel. After over a year of living in supported accommodation I finally got my own flat in 2009. Hyh gave me a support worker, so I could keep on top of paying my bills, maintain my tenancy and am still in my flat now.

I joined iPro and I still volunteer for them. They helped me out a lot and have given me lots of opportunities to make friends, get more education and work experience. It would have been much harder without them.