The Joy of Planning
Posted: March 1, 2012 Filed under: Cyrenians, Miscellaneous, welfare benefits, Work | Tags: Charity, cyrenians, prevention, welfare benefits Leave a comment »Each winter Cyrenians gets everyone involved in taking stock and refreshing our vision and plans. We’re just concluding that process. As ever, it’s been fascinating and invigorating. Our trustees will sign off the up-dated Corporate Strategy in the next few weeks. And then, whoosh!
In November we had Professor Jo Armstrong from the Centre for Public Policy for Regions at our Trustee Conference. She confirmed what we thought: it’s going to be tough times for a long time ahead for people on the margins and those needing funding to try to help them.
Looking at our annual results in December gave us quite a lift. More people helped and with greater effect. January and February were filled with many great conversations with our customers, practitioners, volunteers, partner organisations, funders and allies.
To some this extended planning process every year might seem a bit indulgent and introspective. I need to say that the pace of day-to-day work in helping people and innovating new ventures never slackens. It somehow all gets done.
It’s been a real joy to share knowledge and insight with such a range of people who are passionate about making a difference for people in tough times and making Scotland a more caring community. There are some great ideas coming through into the plans for the future. And what challenges we have!
- Welfare reforms will push some our most vulnerable citizens into more fragile circumstances. We’ll be launching a raft of initiatives to provide more practical help as a hand-up, not a hand out (More of this anon)
Trainees at Cyrenians Farm
- With more people just one mistake or one bad break from losing their home we’ll try to roll out our unique prevention service across Scotland
- We’ll be stepping up our efforts to prevent the most challenging and yet vulnerable young people from rejecting and being rejected by society, and helping them turn things around for good
- With there being little real prospect of sustainable jobs for the least employable and a punishing welfare regime, charities like Cyrenians play an important role as advocates in preventing unjust decisions and helping those left near destitute, but our big push will be in helping them to become more employable and creating jobs through our enterprises.
- The second NHS Community Garden gets underway this summer at Midlothian Community Hospital with the prospect of the model continuing to replicate further, providing great places for communities to grow together in well-being
Probably our biggest challenge will be finding new ways of achieving all of the above (and more) with much less public sector funding about.
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More Dickens, please?
Posted: February 7, 2012 Filed under: charity, Community, Cyrenians, Homeless, welfare benefits | Tags: cyrenians, Homelessness, welfare benefits Leave a comment »Dickens is my hero. Happy 200th birthday, Sir. His true gift – which we need more than ever - is his ability to engender empathy in his readers. He campaigned on specific issues -such as sanitation and the workhouse -but his fiction changed hearts as well as minds. So much so that it led to social reform.
Oliver Twist shocked readers with its images of poverty and crime and was responsible for the clearing of the London slum, Jacob’s Island. The Pickwick Papers was influential in having the Fleet Prison shut down. Bleak House demonstrated how the interminable lawsuits of the Court of Chancery destroyed people’s lives, (did anything change there?), and Hard Times accelerated progress to factory reforms. Karl Marx said Dickens, “…issued to the world more political and social truths than have been uttered by all the professional politicians, publicists and moralists put together.”
I was prompted the other day to think that we need more writers today like Dickens to penetrate the smog of politics and statistics and PR to connect on an empathetic level with the lives of our fellow citizens across the widening social divide. It was an article by Amelia Gentleman in the Guardian Society about the operation of the DWP Work Programme in Hull. Neither polemical or demeaning of the efforts of the people employed to help, the piece is about humanity and the absurdities we find ourselves part of, half wondering, what the Dickens are we doing?
In a classroom upstairs, an 18-year-old man with red acne scars and a powerful stammer, who has been unemployed since he left school with no GCSEs and whose parents have never worked, is sitting with a 33-year-old father of six, who hasn’t worked since his plastering job, helping renovate the Travelodge hotel, finished two years ago. They’re being taken through an induction programme by a man who introduces himself as a multifunctional trainer and who tells them (reading from a script) that: “Through a range of activities, we integrate your vocational, social, personal development needs with your work aspirations.”
“We want to share your brilliance with the rest of society,” he tells them. The teenager looks at his fingernails and the older man’s brow wrinkles with polite scepticism.
The trainer spends a long time taking them through the “You and I Charter”, which he reads with hushed reverence, as if it were poetry. “You and I need to always be on time… You and I need to sustain an understanding of what we are together aiming to achieve. You and I need to be proactive. You and I need to just be… You and Me.” The older man nods agreeably, the teenager bites his lower lip.’
Family mediation helps prevent youth homelessness
Posted: November 18, 2011 Filed under: charity, Community, Cyrenians, family, Homeless, homelessness | Tags: Homelessness, prevention, welfare benefits 1 Comment »
Emma outside Parliament demonstrating the scale of the problem
A week on from yet another event at the Parliament and everyone in the office is heartily sick of jelly babies! Six thousand of them were used to graphically demonstrate the number of young people who become homeless in Scotland every year. Even in the best of times the biggest trigger for youth homelessness is family breakdown. These are not the best of times.
Despite sterling efforts from everyone concerned in Scotland - councils, charities, housing associations – the numbers at risk can only be rising. Not just youth joblessness, but the unemployment of parents, lowering real incomes and rising cost of living all increase the pressure within families, with relationships already fragile through the teen years.
Add to that the growing shortage of affordable housing, benefit reforms and growing gaps in the welfare safety net from the cuts and we have a dangerous cocktail of conditions that remind me of the last shocking tidal wave of youth homelessness I witnessed in the early nineties when we had to resort at one point to putting sleeping bags on the office floor at night.
But Cyrenians are not moaners or scaremongers. Cyrenians latest report Mediation & Homelessness is based on a study of the use of mediation over the last 10 years to prevent young people ending up homeless by crashing out of the family home. We offer it as a pragmatic and cost effective solution. Emma Dore has done a wonderful job of presenting clear and compelling evidence that properly targeted and trained mediation services are an important part of the tool-kit for preventing youth homelessness.
We’re leaving it to others to crunch the numbers and calculate if the intervention actually saves money and makes it an attractive proposition to funders in austere times. We quote other research that shows a saving of £3,229 per case. But far more compelling is the evidence from practice of lives changed by being helped to talk to each other and sort out problems before they end in breakdown that costs years of misery. Click here to watch the short film about Cyrenians Amber service.
Cyrenians need support to be able to keep supporting over 3,000 people a year
Call to Invest in Prevention
Posted: November 3, 2011 Filed under: Cyrenians, Homeless, homelessness, welfare benefits | Tags: Community, cyrenians, Homelessness, prevention, welfare benefits Leave a comment »It was alarm clock set for 05.00 a.m. and a taxi booked for an interview on Good Morning Scotland alongside ‘Laura’ – one of the 400 people a year being helped by us to avoid homelessness. Then came the call from the studio to say we’re bumped from the schedule by a breaking news story. Ironically – some would say – that breaking story was about the Occupy Camp in Glasgow agreeing to resite to Kelvingrove. I was disappointed for Laura. She is passionate about sharing her experience in the hope that others look for help before the problems become overwhelming. Still, we’ve been filmed for STV news this evening and the story is out on media portals.
We’re launching our report today - reception at the Scottish Parliament this evening – demonstrating that acting early to prevent people at risk from losing their home saves the person from the misery of homelessness while also making savings for the local authority and allowing them to concentrate resources on the long term homeless with more intransigent problems.
We’re reporting a 99% success rate in working with around 400 people a year, with success measured by the fact that, one year on from our help, those people had not presented to the Council as homeless. A more detailed evaluation of 50 cases reveals that the people helped are not just surviving but in many cases thriving as a result, with improved health and well-being, improved income, less isolation and better job prospects.
Everyone concerned has done a truly great job in designing and delivering the Homelessness Prevention Service, including our partners at City of Edinburgh Council. We think it has the potential to be rolled out across Scotland to prevent 1,000′s of people a year from losing their homes and sliding into deeper problems. Every success is a resource saving for local authorities: saving the cost of temporary accommodation and even recovering rent arrears.
So today we’re calling out to everyone and anyone who can help make this a reality across Scotland: local councils, the Government, the business sector, funders, researchers… We’ve got a scalable model that clearly works, so let’s make full use of it in preventing the misery of homelessness where we can, and in the process saving resources that can be targeted at those already homeless and with more complex and enduring needs.
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Making it Work for Young People
Posted: October 14, 2011 Filed under: Cyrenians, homelessness, Work | Tags: employment, Homelessness, welfare benefits Leave a comment »Sadie is one of the 21.3% of young people in the UK whose lives are stalled by the lack of employment opportunity on statistics released yesterday. She is one of the 114,000 young people in the UK who have, only over the summer, joined the queue waiting for a chance to fulfill their potential through work. She is one of the more-than 1 in 5 and rising young adults whose ambitions are being stymied, confidence eroded and self esteem sucked out by the day side-lined from gainful employment.
Training for work at Cyrenians Farm
Sadie graduated with a first from Glasgow University in May. She’s a creative, energetic 22 year old. Since her 16th birthday she’s always worked, alongside studying. She’s been a barista, cleaner, waitress, till worker, coat check girl… In her spare time she’s played violin with the Scottish Schools Orchestra, toured with experimental Glasgow band Yahweh, volunteered with kiddies and asylum seekers and travelled. Bright, highly personable and ambitious to make a positive contribution to the world, you’d think a young woman like Sadie would be embraced and nurtured by the working world? But then I would think that, wouldn’t I? I’m her Dad.
She’ll be alright. But what chance in the current state of things for some of the young people who we work with at Cyrenians? Each one as precious a human being as my Sadie, and equally deserving of the chance to contribute and be rewarded by work. But in our residential service, for example, over 70% had damaged childhoods, most left school without qualifications, half have offending records and 50% are trying to manage diagnosed mental health issues. It’s tricky because Cyrenians believe every one of them should be on a pathway and have aspirations and the prospect of a rewarding working life, but we’ve got to be realistic. Even if jobs were out there, it’s a heck of a long steep path for the young people carrying the heaviest burdens and least equipped to carry them.
What can be done? Practically I mean. For young people with mainstream needs, Community Jobs Scotland is a good start but its too small. And why wait til young people have been unemployed for 6 months? Cyrenians has been allocated just 2 posts. I hope this is considerably scaled up by the Scottish Government in 2012/13. For young people disadvantaged by homelessness, damaged childhoods and associated problems, Scotland’s New Futures Fund (1998 – 2005) was the most effective scheme I’ve witnessed – and I’m still puzzled by why it stopped? ‘NFF projects are able to achieve extremely good results with a very difficult client group, not only in terms of moving people onto the stepping stones towards the labour market, but also into work.’ (Evaluation Report, May 2005). At least 55% achieved progress and nearly a quarter stepped into further education or jobs: a remarkable outcome given the starting point for most. Why not revive that here in Scotland? It will prevent and save more than it costs.
We’re also busily here designing new initiatives in our social enterprise workplaces to give at least a few more young people the opportunity and support to start a good working life.
A Hand Up, Not a Hand Out
Posted: October 3, 2011 Filed under: charity, Community, CSR, Cyrenians, environment, food, homelessness | Tags: Environment, Food, welfare benefits, Working with Businesses Leave a comment »FareShare has hit the media big time over the weekend. Cyrenians provides one of 17 services across the UK that together contribute to 8.6 million meals a year with surplus product donated by the food industry. Donated fresh food is quality checked and distributed by volunteers from our Leith warehouse to supply 43 charity kitchens around Lothian to supplement their food budget and add value to their menu. (“Aw no, not salmon en croute again,” a customer of a local shelter kitchen was famously heard saying to a delivery team!)
As the National Survey reports, we’re looking for more food donors in Scotland, more volunteers to help run the Programme and financial support so that we can increase the impact we’re making.
It’s a brilliant service: “A triumph of common sense,” as Sir Tom Farmer called it on one of his visits. Charities for the homeless have some decent fare to put in front of folk, as well as help and advice from our food team. Large quantities of food is diverted from land-fill. And dozens of people who were homeless are helping run the warehouse and delivery vans; helping their recovery while helping others. To that we add cookery classes for over 200 people a year and their carers. From Day One - back in the year 2000 – we’ve been determined that the Programme is a hand-up, not just a hand out. We want to see food used to bring people together and forward in their lives.
For that reason we’ve not publicised our limited work to date in distributing Emergency Food Packs to individuals and families who are receiving other services. We think we’d already be swamped by demand and this will certainly rise as the welfare reforms roll out.
But our Thinking Hats are firmly on again given the evidence of growing need. We welcome ideas and suggestions – even proposals – about how else to provide food help in tackling the poverty in our midst without creating dependence or tackling a mountain with a teaspoon.
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Dealing with Reality
Posted: September 23, 2011 Filed under: charity, CSR, Cyrenians, volunteering | Tags: cyrenians, employment, welfare benefits, Working with Businesses Leave a comment »The Scottish Budget debate is taking place in Holyrood as I write this but we already know the outcome. It may have been delayed in coming to Scotland but the new reality has arrived. We might wish things were different but Cyrenians’ challenge from here is to adapt to being a force for good with much less public funding to hand and many more people in need of help.
One way of doing this is through our partnerships with the business community. There are lots of examples if you read down this blog, but it’s always exciting to start new relationships. Last Friday we started a new 12 week project with a team from Scottish Gas. They are going to work with our front-line teams to research the mounting financial challenges faced by tenants on the fragile margins who are one bad break or one mistake away from homelessness. We’ll use that research to create some better help for them. This new corporate relationship is brokered and faciltated by our friends at the excellent Three Hands: lovely people doing a great job, and ever more important job in the new reality.
Our Community Gardens ventures typify another creative approach to the problem: bringing together volunteering, local community activism and local assets – like unused land – to make lots of good things happen for relatively low cost. Look at this link to see how busy the calendar of activities is at the Royal Edinburgh Gardens. Inspiring Scotland is currently rolling out a new initiative called Link-Up to promote low cost/high impact community activity.
Alongside the development of Cyrenians Social Enterprises, we’ve these few things to build on to ensure that Cyrenians remains a force for good whatever happens with public funding.
Harder to deal with will be the reality facing people who no longer have jobs in the public sector or the housing benefits to afford their home.
Crisis in the Making
Posted: September 9, 2011 Filed under: Cyrenians, homelessness | Tags: Community, cyrenians, Homelessness, welfare benefits Leave a comment »Our good friends at Crisis are doing a great job in highlighting the incipient rise in homelessness in the UK. London has seen an 8% increase in rough sleeping. South-of-the-Border research shows a 14% increase in people living suitcase lives in B&B’s after presenting as homeless. Unless some of the current policies are reversed, things are only going to get worse, and all over the UK. It stands to reason.
David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, summarises the general housing crisis in his blog: ‘How bad does it have to get? Thousands locked out of any prospect of being able to buy a home, private rents soaring, the lowest level of new house building for 90 years and a growing population.’ Add to this the growing gap between supply and demand for social, affordable housing. 
The Westminster Government’s plans to break the link between housing benefit and the actual cost of local rents, new benefit sanctions that could hit the most vulnerable and to limit housing benefit for people aged 25 – 34 to the price of a single room all contribute to weakening the grip of the unemployed and low waged on the lower rungs of the accommodation ladder. (I’m urging supporters to join Crisis in campaigning against the DWP benefit changes).
For those who slip or fall from the ladder, cuts on local authority spending will have stretched, weakened and made big holes in the safety net. (Our Homeless Prevention team are already reporting delays in getting urgent help, such as CAB appointments).
I’m immensely proud of Scotland having the most progressive legislation and strategy to tackle homelessness in Europe, and we have achieved many years of steady progress in reducing the numbers and improving provision and the help for people to turn their lives around. It is galling to see things reverse. Here at Cyrenians we are busily replanning and working with our partners in all sectors of the community to prepare for what we sadly know is coming.
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More than ‘Just the Job’
Posted: August 24, 2011 Filed under: Miscellaneous | Tags: Charity, cyrenians, employment, Homelessness, welfare benefits, Working with Businesses Leave a comment »Typically, people affected by homelessness and associated difficulties face major barriers in getting into a settled working life. However, getting into a settled working life is often fundamental to their full recovery and resilience to repeat problems.
There is research evidence that:
- Over 80% of the long-term homeless are also long-term unemployed
- 77% or respondents were ready & willing for some sort of work with 97% wanting to work in future
In April 2010 the JPMorgan Chase Foundation began to support us to put homeless people on a path to employment and a settled working life using our own social enterprise workplaces to build experience, skills and self belief. Financial investment came with support from the firm and its workforce in Scotland through employee-led initiatives in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
In that year we’ve increased the passage of people fro
m homelessness to a settled working life from 14 a year to an average of over 1 a week. To some that might not seem like much, but each case is literally life changing. And the service to people is top quality – making sure that people are really prepared, ready and supported to progress in their working life. It’s not a quick fix or a box tick.
The people from J.P.Morgan have been absolute stars! As well as financial and business help, more than 30 of the workforce have volunteered at two of our social enterprise workplaces, Cyrenians Farm and the Good Food Depot.
Prevention Can Save Money & Misery
Posted: July 4, 2011 Filed under: Cyrenians, Homeless, homelessness, welfare benefits | Tags: cyrenians, Homelessness, welfare benefits Leave a comment »Hopefully the UK Government will respond with meaningful action to the news over the weekend that their current policies will result in an escalation in homelessness and disinvestment in affordable housing. It should do. If the primary purpose of their policy is to reduce expenditure the current course will fail. There is time to think again.
Cyrenians case is that state can actually save money as well as peoples misery by investing in services that prevent homelessness in the first place. We are featured on this point in the Scottish Government’s new report (29th June) from the Christie Commission into the future of public services in Scotland.
Surely it makes sense from every perspectiveand every agenda to invest in new interventions like this?
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