Fledge House for Homeless Young People

Aim

Fledge has been gifted a house to provide accommodation for homeless and vulnerable young people in Eastleigh. We need £6000 start-up funds.

Almost 50% of the homless population in the UK are young people aged 16-24. There are over 130,000 young people  trying to access support from thier local authorities because they are homless or at risk of homlessness. 45% of these young people get turned away.

The House

Fledge has been gifted a house to provide accommodation for homeless and vulnerable young people in Eastleigh. The young people, aged 18-24 will stay in the house for 3-6 months. They will receive a needs assessment and have a support plan devised for them. Young people will get a tailored support package that may include:

• Financial management including budgeting and money management
• Household management eg how to clean and do basic repairs
• Healthy living including cooking and leisure activities
• Self management including using public transport and time keeping
• Education, training and employment advice and guidance

Fledge will move the young people on either into independence or provide mediation to enable them to move back home or onto other appropriate accomodation.

The type of young people Fledge are working with:

Who: Donna and Sam, aged 15 and 17

Situation when Fledge got involved:

Donna and Sam were initially referred to Fledge for 121 support, Donna decided she did not require it and I worked with Sam developing her independent living skills. One morning Donna called us and advised us that their foster carer had passed away suddenly and was still in bed at home.

What Fledge did:

• Talked the girls through what they needed to do in the crisis situation
• Helped the girls find paperwork and register the death
• Facilitated contact with their carer's sister who lived in Australia and helped them meet up
• Took the girls shopping, created meal plans and cooked food with them
• Liaised with the lettings agency to enable them to stay in the house
• Referred them for bereavement counselling
• Liaised with colleges to enable them to gain support

 Where are they now:

• They are in living in Australia with their carers sister
• They are both having bereavement counselling
• Both girls have continued in college/training in Australia
• The girls are going to buy a house together with their inheritance
• They feel like they have a future again

 We need £6000 start-up funds. This will:

• Enable us to employ a Support Worker before the young people are placed in the house
• Allow us to buy equipment for the house eg furniture, bedding, kitchen equipment, office equipment 
• Enable us to be more sustainable in the future and give us 2 months running costs whilst waiting for housing benefit to be paid
• Enable us to start giving young people a home

How much things cost us:

• £100 provides one week of 1:1 support
• £11 provides one nights accomodation
• £110 buys a complete starter pack for a young person (duvet, pillows, bedding, toiletories, cutlery, crockery etc)
• £30 buys a duvet and bedding for a young person

This project successfully funded on 7th April 2016