Re-evaluation for Investing in Children membership
Moving On
For the purpose of this re-evaluation for Investing in Children membership I met and
spoke with Liam, Marta, Gavin, Daniel, Sarah who have all accessed the services Moving
On offer.
Moving On supports young people aged 16-25 across County Durham who experience
homelessness or at risk of being homeless and continues to be registered as a charity.
There is a variety of personal centred support, pre-tenancy advice and floating support
for when young people move into accommodation. Moving On still provide opportunities
for many young people to get involved in decision making and further developments have
been made as to how young people participate in discussion regarding what the project
does. Some ideas are then incorporated into the project delivery plan.
This report will highlight some of the opportunities young people have had to participate
in decision making and will identify any changes that have taken place.
Opportunities for Dialogue and Change
Life Skills
This allows young people to meet with staff from the project to discuss what support they
need within a group setting.
Gavin told me, “At the beginning we will talk about what things will be covered and
what things we want to do.” He added, “We also get to fill in forms and talk about
each session at the end so they know what we think, which is good.”
Liam highlighted, “During one of the sessions we discussed doing more cooking
and learning how to budget our money for food.” He added,” They did a few more
sessions about cooking after that.”
Sarah added, “During one of the sessions we talked about the group leader talking
to people one on one and not in a group.” Sarah added, “Group work should be
about working with everyone which began to happen the week after it was brought
up.”
The young people who attend the Life Skills programme clearly demonstrated how they
evaluate it and regularly influence the context of the programme.
The Big Sleep Out
This took place at Durham Cathedral to raise money for the project and over 400 people
participated in a sleep over.
Below is what some young people told me about their involvement.
Daniel explained, “We helped plan the sleep over at the Cathedral by meeting as a
group to come up with lots of ideas of how it would work best.” He added, “We also
came up with the idea to have a couple of rappers there because one of the young
people had heard about them and that they rap about different things that happen
to people like homelessness.”
Liam informed me, “We spoke with staff about the best way the event should be run
and decided it would be good if someone could give their life story and how
Moving On helped them.” He added, “I also thought it would be good to film it and
put it on the YouTube so more people get to know about Moving On and how they
help people like me.” All of these ideas were then combined into the charity event.
Key Fund
Some young people have been helped by the project to access the Key Fund so that
they could participate in group activities of their choice.
Gavin explained, “We met as a group and spoke about doing some fun things as
part of a like skills group.” He added, “We did a presentation about our ideas and
got £750 to do a full day of activities.”
Individual Support
Some of the young people spoke positively about the support they received from Moving
On.
Marta explained, “They have been really good and helped me with housing benefits,
council tax and help with an English course and getting on an Access course at
New College.” Marta added, “Every time I have a problem I can ring them and they
will back me straightway.”
Gavin expressed, “It’s a great place to be because they have helped me with my
anger by helping me with anger management counselling.” He also added, “They
have also helped me to fill in a form to be a volunteer in the garden at St Cuthbert’s
Hospice.”
These young people informed me that their personal situation had improved as a direct
result of the advice and support they had received.
Youth Homelessness North East Network
Moving On was chosen to represent the network as the regional champion for County
Durham, which has allowed young people from the project to have a voice and meet with
other young people and services to discuss homelessness.
Liam informed me, “I have been meeting with lots of different people to talk about
my personal experiences and have met with lots of different people to discuss
what they do on homelessness.”
Dulux
Moving On was approached by Dulux to offer support and requested ideas as to how
they could support the charity.
Sarah explained, “We got to choose what colours we wanted throughout the office
and spent two days decorating it.” Sarah added, “We decided on purple, green and
red.”
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Conclusion
All the young people I met with explained that they felt Moving On allowed them and
other young people, the opportunity to participate in decision making regarding different
features of the service offered to young people.
It also involves young people in the direct running of the project through various decision
making processes. This has allowed both the young people and staff to further develop a
service young people use and value and make more changes based on the ideas of
some young people.
It is because of this that I have no hesitation once again in recommending that Moving
On Project receives Investing in Children Membership.
This report has been endorsed by the following young people who were: Liam, Marta,
Gavin, Daniel, Sarah.
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