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Homeless Link in the South West
See our News page for national and regional news on homelessness.
Homeless Link's work in the South West
Dawn Prince-White is our Regional Manager for the South West. Dawn is covering the South West for Amber Place, Head of the Midlands and the South West, whilst she's on maternity leave.
Her role is to support hostels and daycentres to become places of change. She is one of 9 regional managers funded by the Department for Communities and Local Government.
Email Dawn at: dawn.princewhite@homelesslink.org.uk or call her on (mobile) 07798 631296
What's New?
- Communities and Local Government has announced £70 million investment to expand the Places of Change programme to more hostels and day centres across the country. Homeless Link has organised a number of briefing sessions to give guidance around funding applications for the new Places of Change Programme.
- The Michael Whippman Awards are now open. Is there an individual or group or individuals using your project you think should win a prize for their work in the community? Hurry - closing date is the 1 December 2007.
- Do you work in, or know of, a daycentre that also deserves to win a prize? So often overlooked for their good work this is an opportunity for some reward with the John Laing Charitable Trust Daycentre of the Year Award - closing date 1 December 2007.
News from agencies
Have you thought about self-build? Does it feel like this is the buzz word at the moment?
If you want to know more about this then read the report from The Shekinah Mission in Plymouth, who used trainees on their Steady Work programme to build their new nightshelter. Learn about the benefits of working in this way and the lessons that have been learned. The Gates Project
Do you have some news you would like posting on this website? Contact your Regional Manager.
Would you like to read a book written by a member of the Meaningful Occupation Project in Exeter? This book is a collection of poems by author Paul Billett. Many of the poems are about people he has met and places he has been as well as the emotions involved with having a drinking problem. At one point he hit rock bottom and was placed in a homeless hostel where they encouraged him to write and now he has a published book. Could this inspire you or your service users? For more information:
Resources from Homeless Link
Rural research
- Rural homelessness project - Homeless Link's research on rural issues facing the voluntary and community sector was fully supported by agencies in the South West who played a key role in feeding into the project.
Clean Break
- Clean break - our action research project into drugs and homelessness.
- This research has already provided support to agencies in the South West and the Street Homeless Outreach Team (SHOT) in Exeter have based a training course on the findings to enable agencies to use the toolkit developed by Homeless Link.
Move On
- Move-on plans protocol (MOPP) - The move-on plans protocol project (MOPP) is Homeless Link’s response to the national problem of move-on. An information booklet and toolkit to support the development of the protocol in your area are now available.
- If you would like to use the the MOPP toolkit then your Regional Manager can support you to develop your protocol.
Regional Training Consortia
- Do you find that Homeless Link's scheduled courses are too far to travel to, or beyond your budget? Could Consortium training the answer for you?
Hostels as Places of Change
Providers from the region have been taking part in events and visits to services to hear about and view best practice in building design and service delivery.
Places of Change events
- Birmingham and Sheffield visits took place in the first half of 2006.
- An expert practitioners meeting for architects took place in Liverpool in September 2006. This brought together architects and planners from across the north of England to discuss innovation and best practice.
Improving Services by Better Design
The materials and plans from these events are in our new Better services by design pages.