Moving Towards Independence

Guidance co-produced with young people who have lived experience of moving towards independence from supported lodgings.

This blog post and brief was authored by Dr Becky Ward, Kelly Headen, Jennifer Tarabay, Sarah Abrahams and the Step by Step Speak Out Group.

To jump straight to the policy brief, click below. Read on to learn how it all came together.

The Event

On 24 July 2024, at Step by Step HQ in Aldershot, 35 representatives from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, local authorities, NHS, third sector organisations, hosts of young people, all listened and engaged and generated ideas that could start moving things forward. The young people had co-produced 4 recommendations for change, and the attendees took these seriously and began the process of figuring out what the next steps might be.

It was a privilege to listen to young people moving on from supported lodgings and sharing their experiences. The best thing was knowing that the audience had influence.

Alongside some presentations, we had activities for delegates to join in with. Bag packing (which items can you take and which will you have to leave behind?), food budgeting (how many essentials can you afford?), and a fair fight – has one young person facing multiples challenges got a chance of winning in the end?

There was an overwhelming response by those attending – and an urge to do something in response.

THE Backstory

Step by Step is a youth charity supporting young people going through hard times, including homelessness. They provide accommodation, personal development opportunities, and specialist support services to empower young people to a brighter future and prevent homelessness. Step by Step are highly skilled with 35 years' experience of moving young people successfully into independence, breaking down barriers they face in the ever-changing landscape of the UK housing sector.

The Centre for Homelessness Research and Practice (CHRP) is based at the University of Southampton, in the School of Psychology. The Centre’s mission is to integrate research, training and practice to better serve people experiencing homelessness. The Centre involves real-world research, clinical psychology placements with third sector organisations, and a social enterprise providing psychological and peer mentoring services – all knit together by a regional homelessness community of practice.

A coffee shop meeting between Debbie Moreton, CEO of Step by Step, Becky Ward, Research Director at the CHRP,  and Jen Tarabay, Manager of the Homelessness Community of Practice, started the conversation of how we could work together. We wanted to champion the young people, and enable them to share their experiences and be at the heart of the work we did together.

The Supported Lodgings Speak Out group (a youth voice) group was the logical starting point, asking the young people what they thought was important about moving towards independence. More young people were invited to contribute over time, sending voice notes, photographs and emails. Once a range of experiences were captured, the next step was to identify areas that could change to improve support for young people for this transition.

HOw did You Do it?

We began by Becky and Jen joining the Supported Lodgings Speak Out group monthly Teams calls, facilitated by Sarah Abrahams at Step by Step. Talking together, writing in the chat and on a shared Padlet we started to gather the experiences that the young people wanted to share. Sarah also shared the invitation to contribute across all the staff at Step by Step to encourage more young people to share. Not all were able to join the online calls, so we shared the Padlet link, invited WhatsApp messages, voice notes, photographs with captions, and emails. We wanted to make it as easy and accessible as possible for young people to share their perspectives.

Once we started planning the event, we managed to meet up in Winchester, grab some food and drink, and get our ideas down on paper. One young person felt confident to speak at the event, and planned an incredibly engaging interactive talk to present the range of challenges young people face when moving towards independence.

We also created activities that delegates at the event could take part in to really get a feeling for what those challenges might be.

WHAT’S Next?

We are excited to see where we can go next. We want to share our policy brief far and wide - please read by clicking on the image below, and share.

We plan to follow up with all delegates and ask them to commit to one action in response to the event.

We will be disseminating press releases, social media content, a research article and have submitted applications to speak at wider events.

And we will keep talking to think of what else we can do.

👌 Thank you to the young people and Step by Step for your partnership in this project.

Thank you too for the funding from the Centre for the South (CftS) which enabled this project to happen.

Find out more

Email Becky Ward r.j.ward@soton.ac.uk or Kelly Headen kelly.headen@stepbystep.org.uk