One day youth-led conference on preventing homelessness, 18 October 2007, Birmingham

Young people have a unique perspective to contribute to service improvement and it is critical that they are given the opportunity to do so. Youth homelessness remains high on the political agenda as evidenced by the Government's annoucement in November 2006 on the National Youth Homelessness Scheme, a package of measures to tackle youth homelessness.

This innovative conference from St Basils linked young people who have direct experience of homelessness with frontline agencies and started the process of engagement. This was a fantastic opportunity for individuals and organisations who commission and deliver services relating to youth homelessness to be inspired by what young people have to say about how to create real change and develop preventative services that work.

Programme

Programme details

Workshop information

The conference programme included a series of interactive workshops led by young people.

• Customer Journeys – understand what it is like to be a customer of homelessness services - what works, what doesn’t and how to get it right.
• Raising Aspirations – young people move beyond homelessness because of their aspirations and ambitions. How can these be raised and how can organisations work with young people to meet them?
• Involvement & participation – what your organisation needs to consider to bring involvement and participation to the heart of your work.
• Life Skills – what skills do young people really need to move beyond homelessness and move forward with their lives? And how is it possible to make gaining these skills relevant and interesting?
• Schools work – young people are helping to preventing homelessness by working with schools. Find out what models of good practice are being used and what impact they are having.

Delegates had the opportunity to:

• attend a series of challenging, interactive workshops led by young people
• hear from a keynote Government speaker on how the National Youth Homelessness Scheme is improving services for young people
• engage with real-life case studies from young people on what works and what doesn't
• view for the first time, the National Youth Homelessness Scheme good practice website