The Journeys Home Fund - celebrating the launch of Crisis' first giving club
Jon Houlihan, Crisis Philanthropy Manager
04.06.2021
When I joined Crisis in September of 2020, it seemed clear the country was headed for another national lockdown. The bleakness of a winter without seeing friends and family in-person loomed large and the prospect of making Christmas dinner by myself for the first time was probably just as alarming to my kitchen as it was to me.
But I had been lucky; unlike many peers in my age group, I hadn’t been forced to move back in with my parents that year. My family would have been happy to have me, which isn’t something everyone can say, but moving back in with them at nearly 30 was not something I wanted to do. The role at Crisis came along at just the right time. It meant I didn’t have to dip into savings to cover my rent, or deal with the anxiety and stress of asking my landlord for a reduction or delay.
Many around the country have not been so fortunate. In the short time I’ve been here, Crisis has already shown itself to be a great employer and a first-rate place to work, but put simply, it shouldn’t need to exist.
More than 200,800 households in England alone are currently experiencing some of the worst forms of homelessness; that’s down from an estimated 220,000 in 2019. Strong action taken early in the pandemic (such as the ‘Everyone In’ scheme) has shown the effect we can have when we all come together, but clearly there is a long way to go.
And behind each statistic there’s a story. There’s a person.
Even before the pandemic, it was clear from walking down the same London streets each year that the number of people sleeping rough was increasing, but for every individual in England you see kipping on a bench or huddled against the cold on some street corner, there are around 20 more experiencing some other ‘hidden’ kind of homelessness.
A home is a basic human need. Sleeping in a car, living out of a B&B, or staying on a friend’s sofa for months, let alone sleeping rough – these aren’t experiences anyone should be forced to undergo in one of the richest countries in the world, let alone hundreds of thousands of people. The words ‘injustice’ and ‘indignity’ are mentioned a lot at Crisis – they are accurate.
But homelessness is not inevitable.
As vaccination rates continue to rise and local communities reopen and rebuild, we need to provide the right kind of support and services to those facing homelessness, while tackling the systemic pressures – like the lack of genuinely affordable housing – that push people to the brink in the first place. Crisis has a plan to end homelessness, and an important part of that strategy involves adapting how we provide our services so that we can do even better by those who come to us for help.
Following several reviews and in-depth evaluations, which actively involved people who have lived experience of homelessness, a new model has been developed and begun to be implemented at Skylight London. A key part of that model is the ‘structured coaching’ team, which aims to help nearly 600 people leave homelessness behind over the next three years.
Coaches work one-to-one with members (people who come to Crisis for help) to structure each individual’s journey out of homelessness in a way that addresses their specific individual needs. By ensuring every member has a consistent key point of contact at Crisis, we can provide wraparound support that addresses the complex roots and effects of homelessness, deepening the impact we can have in people’s lives.
The team forms part of a services blueprint that Crisis plans to roll out across all 11 of its Skylights. And to help develop best practice throughout the sector, we will work collaboratively with other organisations to implement the model and better serve the needs of local communities. That means we can help end homelessness even in places where we don’t currently provide services directly.
To aid in this effort, Crisis has now launched its very first ‘giving club’, the Journeys Home Fund. This is an opportunity for supporters to direct their giving towards a particular area of Crisis’ work (namely, the structured coaching team at Skylight London), and follow along with that team’s story over the next three years. We hope to build a small community of supporters who are united by the mission of ending homelessness and bring people closer to the impact of their gifts.
We’ve already started to see results from the implementation of the new model – waiting times to access our services at Skylight London could previously be as long as two or three months, which led to a risk of people disengaging or ‘dropping out’ when they needed our help the most. Now, we are able to allocate a lead worker to someone on the same day that they come to us, and they will hear from that lead worker for the first time within 24 hours.
A big thank you is due to all those who took part in the early exploratory discussions to help refine what the Journeys Home Fund would work towards. Some even chose to make a financial contribution to the Fund prior to our launch this spring – an example of the wonderful generosity of Crisis’ supporters. Thanks to that support, we are already set to see nearly £200,000 in pledged income across the next three years, and I’m excited to see how the Fund evolves and grows in the years to come.
“Look at me, I’m the finished product. Why wouldn’t you invest in me?”
Karl, a previous Crisis member, who spoke at our second webinar.
We recently held two webinar events marking the launch of the giving club and heard from some of our amazing front-line staff whose work will be supported through the Fund. Listening to their stories, as well as the stories of the people who Crisis has helped is always moving, and hearing some of the reasons why our supporters give to Crisis was incredibly inspiring too.
Hopefully, we’ll be able to meet in real life soon!
For any enquiries, please get in touch at: jon.houlihan@crisis.org.uk