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It seems that every day there is a ‘… day’ to mark either incredible people (teachers, health professionals, space explorers etc) or a specifically dysfunctional aspect of modern (and not so modern) life.

Do they make any difference?  Don’t misunderstand me.  Homelessness matters.  And so does mental health, whose ‘day’ also happens to fall on 10th October.  To us at Your Own Place, homelessness is our bread and butter.  We live and breathe its spectre every day.

Except that we sit firmly in the prevention agenda.  Our aim, my aim, is that the young people we all support in our various ways should never have to be homeless.  It must never be a right of passage for a care-leaver to have their possessions bundled up in a plastic bin liner just before their 18th birthday because their isn’t a coherent plan for what happens when the state exits.

People of all ages get in a muddle with their bills and their rent.  It’s a normal part of the ebb and flow of life.  I believe there should be a genuine, appropriate and accessible safety net that means it never gets so bad that a person is homeless.

And of course the young people we work with rarely sleep rough – the most visible form of homelessness.  This is one of the many reasons we don’t use that negative, stereotyping and damaging imagery.  I have of course known young people to live rough in tents, caravans, in woods and more commonly between friends’ sofas and squats.  Thankfully there is a marginally more effective safety net if you are young.  So, that’s why we work with young people.  Because their resilience, astonishing determination and belief in a future makes our job easy.

Together we can prevent homelessness.  So, if one day helps us all to focus just for a minute, to share how amazing young people are at avoiding homelessness through their strengths and that of their community, then it’s a day well-spent.

 

 

 

I’ve can’t quite believe I’ve been working with young people for over 20 years! I know, I don’t look old enough!

On the one hand I’ve learnt a lot and on the other, I know nothing.  My confidence in working with them has grown immeasurably.  Particularly in the last four years.  Because of course they’re just human beings like you and me.

I’ve worked as a secondary school teacher, a homelessness support worker, a prison resettlement worker, guns, gangs and knife crime commissioner, a school governor, a leaving care commissioner and a youth worker.  So it’s fair to say I’ve had a range of experiences.

Twenty years feels like a long enough time-frame to be able to look back and see trends, commonalities and shifts.

One of those is that young people have never seemed worse off financially.  I’m always conscious that I’m not comparing like with like and that this is in no way linear.  But I started my career in London for heaven sake.  And with careful budgeting young people could just about make ends meet.  Today even in Norfolk this is no longer the case.

It took me a while to understand the difference in my work with young people in London and young people here in Norfolk.  For me both present a specific challenge.  In London it was violence and risk.  This was the overriding aspect to my work and like those working in the secure estate, the backdrop against which everything else was delivered.

I’m pleased that when I arrived in Norfolk I had some excellent practice to fall back on and am often surprised at the cursory approach many organisations in Norfolk have to managing risk.  And this against a clearly escalating and very worrying knife crime problem in our county.

The biggest difference I see between the loud and often violent young people I worked with in London and those in Norfolk is what looks like apathy.  They’re not apathetic and it’s not to be confused with a lack of aspiration.  It’s poor emotional health and probably partly a consequence of having some of the lowest social mobility in the country.

It’s an absence of seeing people who are like you achieve their dreams.  And it breaks my heart.  Because it’s based on the luck of where you were born.

So this is what gets me up in the morning – removing the barriers that I was mostly lucky enough not to have.

What gets you up in the morning?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No, of course I haven’t, but thank you for reading!  In fact on the curve of learning, I’m not even off the bottom of the curve yet.  What I am, is starting to think about it  – a lot.  This is partly because I’m moving closer to work (much closer) and am worried that I will miss the clear divide 12 miles puts between my office and my home.

I’m also planning what my workspace at home will look like in my new house and how not to resent working in my home.  Let’s face it, we all do it.  Now that emails need responses as quick as texts and can be completed from our gardens, we’re all letting work encroach on our home lives.

To most outsiders my output levels are pretty high.  I get through a lot.  Partly because I have to, but mostly because that’s innately who I am.  Of course I make a rod for my own back.  As things get even busier, my current CEO role as ‘jack of all trades’ is not going to disappear overnight.

Through some careful naval gazing, I’ve realised one thing I do to prevent myself from resenting working from home and it’s happened automatically.  I save the ‘fun’ work-related activities to the weekend (this is being written on a Sunday afternoon).  That way I can’t resent it.  The pension stuff I’ve got to sort out can be done on Tuesday afternoon at the office – much less fun.

What’s your trick for not resenting it?

Am I just putting the pension stuff off?

 

I sometimes get a bit befuddled by these new terms and I assume that I’m just a bit slow on the uptake.  And then the penny drops.  That’s how my brain works – I mull things for a while and then I suddenly get it.  It was the same I remember when learning German.  I just couldn’t get by head around the ‘accusative’ case and what ‘direct object’ meant.  It all seemed a bit abstract.  And then one morning I literally woke up and suddenly got it.

And so it’s been with ‘Digital Social Action’.  Not only did I suddenly get it, but I also saw a way of doing something by bringing together one of my long-held dreams along with tackling Norfolk’s social mobility doldrums.

So, here it is – ‘Your Own Network.  It’s a great partnership.  Thanks to funding from Santander, support from Norfolk Pro Help and Naked Marketing and the web build from SoftApps, we’re now creating a website to bring young people together with all sorts of help from you!  That’s their local community, be it individuals, businesses or providers of services.

It will be managed safely to allow young people to share a profile that includes their dreams and aspirations.  And you can then help them to be fulfilled.  You may be able to offer words of encouragement, point them towards a job advert you saw, buy them something for their new flat or even get involved as a Volunteer Tenancy Mentor and provide some non-virtual support.

That folks, is digital social action.  You will be the ‘pointy elbows’ that many young people lack!

And we’re launching it very soon, so get in touch if you’d like to be part of something pretty groundbreaking.

rebecca@yourownplace.org.uk

 

 

What is your business offering that makes its recruitment package stand out?  What do keen young things look for in an employer?  This is something that has been preoccupying me of late.  Partly because I find recruitment in Norfolk difficult and partly because we want to start working with businesses to help them be awesome employers.

It’s a while since I was a young thing (cue violins) and almost as long since I went to a traditional job interview.

Generally my job search was as sophisticated as the following.

• How much will it pay?
• How many days holiday will I get?
• Where is it based?
• Do I have the skills and if not can I blag it?

I’m thinking things have changed.  Has it become more competitive with more graduates than ever?  And does this mean that businesses as well as prospective candidates are looking for different things now?

Much is made of the ‘millennial’ debate (don’t personally like the word).  Millennials are supposed to be more discerning in seeking ethical, environmental employers as well as a better work–life balance.

So, as employers, what’s your experience of hiring?

And as applicants, what are you looking for (and do tell me your age if you dare!).

Therein lies the reason I’m so committed to social enterprise.  I can’t help but feel in this age of squeezed local authority belts, that old-fashioned funding is just plain wrong.  A couple of years ago, when we were in our infancy (and not choosy), we received £11k through a European funding route.  Don’t get me wrong, we did some good work.  But there were two things that felt totally misguided in the way we were funded.  The first are the strictures put round the funding bid.

Between the submission of a funding bid and starting the project, the world has moved on in a small organisation.  You might have said you’ll spend £5k on staffing, but in fact it’ll need to be more like £6.5k (or even £4k!) due to unforeseen development.  It’s ok thought isn’t it, because you can move 1.5k over from another part of the funding bid?  Except, you often can’t  So you’re forced to fudge it.  This incentivises ‘creative accounting’ and often a project that is not as cost-effective as tax-payers deserve.  And they’re all doing it!

There was a second seemingly farcical aspect too.  We were told we had to spend at least £1k on capital assets.  We didn’t need any, but to get the £11k we had to.  How is that meeting local operational and strategic needs?  We got a lovely printer and projector and some other goodies that have turned out to be useful.  However, I remember a time working for a large national charity, where I came across our loft space one day and found literally 1000s of hoodies and water bottles – a consequence of the same contrived wasteful spending that the voluntary sector is often forced to undertake.

So, that’s why we want to be a sustainable social enterprise.  That way things cost what they cost and we invest when our mission requires us to invest with our modest profit.  What do you think?  Do things need to change?

 

If the answer is yes, then Your Own Place can help.  How? We’re going to be training ten of Norwich City Council’s staff in October to become Volunteer Tenancy Mentors.  You can find out why they think it’s a great idea here.

With the average cost of an eviction hovering around £8000 (not including related costs of temporary accommodation, benefits etc) and youth being the biggest determinant of failed tenancies, then what better way to get involved and prevent the problem and the spiralling cost?

We can offer housing associations and housing authorities an amazing staff development opportunity that not only sees huge rewards in staff skills, but also in the new young tenants they go on to support.  And we can offer 50% off if you buy more than ten spaces!

We provide two-day Volunteer Tenancy Mentoring training to groups of ten staff.  We’ll cover Child and Vulnerable Adult Protection, how to work restoratively and take an asset-based approach as well as all the dos and dont’s of being a Volunteer Tenancy Mentor.  You’ll also get some great money skills ideas and how to approach them with young people. This is an amazing opportunity to provide your staff with new skills ranging from social skills, leadership and time management skills, empathy and learning about working restoratively and effectively with young tenants.

Once trained they will go on to meet a mentee just once a week or fortnight and support this young person in transition in their first tenancy.  No-one should underestimate just what they have to offer a young person starting our in life.

Through the development of their own skills a new tenant will benefit too.  And in turn social landlords will see fewer failed tenancies, evictions and spiralling costs.

This is what we call a win-win-win!

So get in touch to book your training dates and start preventing youth homelessness with us now!

 

 

Like many of the young people we work with, Tiff came through one door to Your Own Place CIC and then accessed another service whilst she was here. She was struggling. On the face of it she was quite settled in supported accommodation and pretty mature.

After spending some time with her Volunteer Tenancy Mentor we learned just how complex her previous life had been and how desperate she was to start a new life.

I recall first meeting her. She wouldn’t make eye contact and no matter my most expert open questioning (!), I couldn’t elicit more than one syllable. It was ok because she started to open up to her Volunteer Tenancy Mentor. Most importantly they built trust which built trust in our organisation too.

In time the Volunteer Tenancy Mentoring came to a successful close. In truth the mentor worried about a dependence, but Tiff showed she was made of stronger stuff. Tiff currently receives support from Alex. Through step by step Employment Support Tiff had made extraordinary progress.

She attended our Joy of Food course and Alex and I both remember the moment she made full eye contact, laughed with her peers and left with a spring in her step. We were delighted to reward her progress with a generously donated Next voucher for some interview clothes.

Tiff is now in part time bar work. She still seeks lots of reassurance and needs ongoing help navigating the impact of work on her benefits – which poses a really threat to work sustainability for her.

But she also has a dream beyond bar work. She’s playing the long game as we all do/did in our first job. She aims to get as much out of this employment as she can and build her CV. The difficulty is that everything to do with her current and future employment is online. She has no computer and no Wifi. This puts her job at risk and her chances of finding a better one. Her rotas, training, payslips, message boards – are all online. And she isn’t.

Never one to give up, having devised a savings plan with Alex, she has incredibly managed already to save some money already. So I’m asking the LinkedIn community if anyone is able to help her out with the remaining amount needed to buy a laptop? We’re looking for around £150.

We thought of asking for a laptop, but we’d rather teach the life skill of saving than providing a hand out. Your Own Place will match any contribution made and Tiff will continue her journey to confidence and independence.

If you don’t measure it, then how do you know if it makes a difference?  Of course, your bottom line isn’t the only reason for getting involved in Corporate Social Responsibility, but let’s not pretend that in this era of social media, you don’t want some visibility.  We all do. I do! But we want more too.  With our new offer to businesses, my organisation wants to work with yours to understand the impact that ‘buying social’ has.  That’s because it’s not traditional Corporate Social Responsibility and just ticking a box.  I feel passionately that by investing in your business and staff (something you do anyway I’m sure) that we can invest in young people and communities at the same time.

Doing business with social enterprises is increasing – something we look forward to discussing on Social Saturday this year.  Social Saturday is an annual event led by Social Enterprise UK.  In October every year we celebrate the £26bn that is spent across the social economy.  From businesses buying their fancy branded macaroons from Miss Macaroon to buying water from Belu and knowing how their profit is invested overseas in water aid projects.  Often the ‘buying social’ relates to goods.  We’re offering you the opportunity to ‘buy social’ when purchasing your staff training.

By ‘buying social’ for staff development and training, your business will be joining the likes of PwC, Santander, Wates, Robertson Group, Amey, Johnson & Johnson and many more who don’t just tick a box – but get a service that makes a difference too.

On October 2nd we’re launching a project in Norfolk and Suffolk that will not only tick your CSR box effortlessly if that’s what you want, but will see tangible financial returns in your business too.

Following our two-day Volunteer Tenancy Mentoring training and becoming a Mentor:

• Your staff will discover the leadership that is hidden in all of us
• The huge potential of your staff will be unlocked resulting in increased motivation
• A sense of team through social purpose and new-found social skills will appear
• Money will be saved on staff retention and recruitment
• With an amazing recruitment package you will be able to recruit the best in their field
• Your staff will have a reason to go to work that money can’t buy!

We know that this training and development opportunity will make a difference and save you money because ACAS, the leading employer expert since 1896,  tells us that:

• 68% of workers say training and development is the most important workplace policy.
• 40% of employees who receive poor job training leave their positions within the first year.

   

   

BiTC (Business in The Community) tells us that 82% of employees that volunteer feel more committed to their employer.  And if they don’t leave, your business saves money in recruiting new people – and  we all hate endless costs relating to lost productivity, recruitment fees, job adverts, new training and induction, reading CVs, interviewing etc etc.  In fact, can you believe that the true cost of replacing an employee can be as much as £30,000?

So by providing staff training to become Volunteer Tenancy Mentors, you will see your staff flourish and bounce into work like Tigger, as they know that they’re making a difference to people’s lives at the same time.  And we know it mentors make a difference.

Your investment in them will be a win-win-win.

That’s a win for your staff, a win for your business and a win for the young people in our community.

You can download a short PDF here about why you’d want to get involved as well as take a look at our webpage just for you.

 

As a social enterprise in the current climate, I can’t decide if I’m more excited by developing a new potential revenue model or all the amazing people I’m going to meet as part of this initiative.

I’ve worked with young people for nearly 20 years and they never fail to surprise me and keep me on my toes.  And it’s the same with adults.  It’s so easy to ‘put people in a box’ and think they are part of your tribe or not part of your tribe depending on which newspaper they read or what school they went to.

If I’ve learnt anything, it’s that this is perfectly not the case.  When recruiting Volunteer Tenancy Mentors we’ve never had to turn anyone away.  Once we’re clear about the opportunity for them as well as the commitment expected, people tend to self-select.

What you’re left with are people that always humble me in their openness to learn, contribute to their communities, but also be honest about what they are going to get out of it.  It’s a total win-win.

Many reading this will empathise with the dilemma of a founder CEO going on holiday for the first time since being a fully up and running social enterprise.  People have been saying for ages that I need to take a holiday.  I know this, so why is it so hard?  It’s not that I don’t trust people to run things whilst I’m away.  It’s not that I think there will be a disaster that only I can deal with.  And it’s not that I think without me opportunities will be missed and things will grind to a halt.  Being honest, part of me will really miss it.  I no longer know who I am in the absence of my business.  It’s who I am and defines me, provides my sense of self and self-esteem.  I remember when I was a teacher I used to worry that after the six weeks summer holiday I may have forgotten how to teach.  I think it’s a bit like that.  I feel I’ll lose the ability to do things at pace, make decisions and achieve all that output.  In reality of course, I’ll be so refreshed that I’ll come back able to do all those things and more.  As well as come back with a whole host of crazy new schemes that I’ve had the headspace to dream up…

With little attention in the current political climate, the Bill became an Act this week.  Extending the period by which a local housing authority will intervene to prevent homelessness from 28 to 56 days is welcomed by most.  It’s an amazing opportunity not just to put crisis-measures in post, but to undertake service-related to work to put right what has gone wrong, before the consequences result in homelessness, misery, expense and a crisis.  We worked with a young man who was summoned by his local housing authority with the threat of eviction from an Introductory Tenancy.  In the few weeks we had he was able to sort out his Universal Credit claim, attend our Tenancy & Independent Living Skills (TILS) course, communicate with his social landlord about what he was doing and regain control and confidence about putting it right.  His arrears are now cleared, his risk of eviction put to one side and his home as secure as it can be.  It can be done, but it takes time and resource to do it.

John Bird joined us last week to tell us his story of setting up The Big Issue. Thanks to a relationship with one of our non-executive directors, he had agreed to travel to Norwich and share his passion.  And share it he did!  I’ve seen him talk once before, but I don’t think there were many in the room quite ready for the energy, passion and spittle that landed on the front row! Like so much of what happens when establishing yourself in any enterprise, to outsiders it can look like chance, fate or serendipity. Personally I don’t believe in these things and broadly believe that ‘the harder I work the luckier I get’.  You can train yourself to see the opportunity in every meeting (without becoming an opportunist).  Saying ‘yes’ to the world is a great start.  It’s exhausting too, which means you can also be strategic about it, without being ruthless.  It’s a fine balance and one I’m loving learning as a social entrepreneur that is lucky enough to be able to hear from people like John Bird to challenge everything I thought I knew!

Last week we trained six young women in Great Yarmouth.  Kindly hosted by The Benjamin Foundation, we delivered a bespoke two-day course to six care-leavers at Aspire.  They are facing a multitude of complexities as they navigate the often unsupported world of managing your first home on a tight budget.  We were able to answer many of their questions and offer them tools to approach managing their finances as well as how to be a great tenant.  67% of the small group said that they had improved their knowledge of the skills required to keep their tenancy.  You can read a one-page impact report of the course here.

This vexes me almost daily.  Mostly because I meet so many amazing people and businesses wanting to ‘help’.  We’re not a charity and therefore this notion of ‘helping’ needs to be re-branded. That’s why I prefer the term ‘social investment’.  It aligns with our values of supporting each other (including our young people) as equals and in an ongoing capacity that allows a relationship to develop.  Take our Volunteer Tenancy Mentors for example.  I am perpetually bowled over that hard-working people are prepared to give up their free time to be trained to provide voluntary support to a young person in their own tenancy.  When trust in charities is at an all-time low and millenials want to work for ethical employers, it’s right for businesses to build an ongoing relationship with a local social enterprise.  That way the business gets to see the results of their investment over the long term with real people. They get to hold onto motivated staff and invest in a ‘social business’ as equals.  This kind of social action is so much more profitable for society than a CSR tick in the one-off paternalistic box.

‘What’s that?” we hear you cry.  It’s a way of getting people involved in good deeds, including volunteering, via a digital platform.  And we’re quite excited about it.  Thanks to funding from Santander and N4NE via Norfolk Community Foundation, we’re developing our very own digital social action platform.  This web app will leverage support from the local community, individuals as well as businesses to help young people move forward with their dreams.

How will it work?  Young people will upload their aspirations, including what’s needed to achieve them.  The community will respond online with encouragement, advice, contacts, opportunities, donations and even by becoming Volunteer Tenancy Mentors.  We will be asking for voluntary subscriptions to use the site and to become involved in this practical way to support young people.  Subscribers will get the satisfaction of seeing them achieve their aspirations and making a local social impact.  We’ll be launching it in October.  Get in touch if you’re a business who would like to support young people in this way, have local social impact and improve social mobility.

In the last week we’ve had some very positive conversations with businesses who want to get involved with Volunteer Tenancy Mentoring. We’ve got a track record of delivering mentors for young people who need this support most.  And now we’re looking to local businesses to get involved as those mentors.  Nothing matches people power!

I read with excitement last week about a long-lived campaign to make PSHE in schools compulsory, finally coming to fruition.  Excited because it reminded me of when I used to teach it in South London and excited because since then, having set up a social enterprise, I’m excited about getting involved again.  Just about every young person we train on our Tenancy & Independent Living Skills (TILS) course tells us that everyone should do our course and what their education lacked was a ‘curriculum for life’.  Our young people tell us that they come out of school with lots of ‘stuff’ they never use. On the other hand no-one has told them how debt and APR works or how to understand a tenancy agreement.  I’m not suggesting that the other ‘stuff’ they learn isn’t useful, but can’t claim not to be excited at the prospect of taking our unique delivery into schools.  We want all young people in schools to benefit from our delivery in budgeting, bills, shopping around for utilities, understanding housing options, running a home and loads more so they feel prepared for adult life.

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You never know it all when you work with young people.  I’ve been working in this field for around 20 years and because nothing stands still,  (not least me or the young people), my perceptions of what I thought I knew are always changing.  I can’t categorically state that things have got harder for young people, but it certainly feels like it.  That’s why we’re asking local retailers to offer small discounts to young people setting up home for the first time.  Picture the scene:  You’ve been living in supported accommodation (‘hostel’ – don’t use that word) since you fell out with your parents two years ago.  You’ve got little savings and the clock ticks inexorably towards the day when you have to move out into your own place.  You’re both excited and anxious about it – that’s natural.  It feels like the opportunity for a new start and you want to make your own place a home.  A little money can a lot further with some help.  There’s all that furniture, flooring, kitchen utensils, paint etc to buy.  If you know a local retailer that could offer our young person a small discount, please share this post with them.  Having a safe and secure place to call home should be minimum expectation for everyone.

We don’t often post other’s articles here, but it’s worthy of note that Norfolk, and more specifically, Norwich, features in this piece. The impossible decisions that the local authority is making are something of a given. We can’t turn back the clock. Many, many people will suffer as a result of these plans. The real concerns are twofold. One lies in the timing. With so much daily hyperbole about cuts and the strains the NHS is under, many people are desensitised to terms like ‘a perfect storm’. There are services being drastically cut alongside wholesale welfare benefit changes and cuts, a housing system that simply doesn’t work for many and hitherto unseen pressure on statutory services. These combined factors are going to have an impact beyond policy-makers’ comprehension and not just on people with ‘protected characteristics’. The other point of note, which probably isn’t unique to Norfolk, but sometimes feels so, is the absence of truly groundbreaking and innovative solutions. Saying that services will still be delivered to the vulnerable no longer stacks up against cuts of this magnitude. It requires root and branch re-thinking and where is this going to come from?  I’m not going to sit here and say that social enterprise has all the answers, but if you look at just some of the drive, leverage and social impact they have, are they not worth bit of investment locally?  What have we got to lose?

I feel compelled to share my observations about my guilty pleasure, as I’ve only just identified it.  I’ve had no time off for 18 months and people who know me will know that ‘downtime’ is not my forte.  One profound enjoyment I have is my 12 mile bicycle commute, of which more in the spring (there’s more to see in the daylight!).  However, at this time of year I find myself curiously able to relax at the weekend thanks to a surfeit of second-rate Christmas films.  I’m not talking about the good ones starring people you’ve heard of like Richard Attenborough in Miracle on 34th Street or James Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life.  I’m talking about the ones with actors you can’t name and never saw again after their one 80 minute outing on Channel 4 or 5.  Sitting down on a Saturday afternoon in front of the fire and a crappy Christmas film with a hot chocolate (and a splash of Disaronno – try it!) is my guilty pleasure at this time of year.  I have been struck by the four genres they fit into, so here goes.  1) Films set in cutesy upstate New York towns, permanently covered in cotton wool snow 2) films starring (usually an older person) playing the role of a relative of Santa Claus sent to be a moral arbiter 3) films where the hero/heroine is secretly royalty from a fictional country normally in eastern Europe and 4) films where the hero/heroine gets stranded in a remote cut-off village where they go on a ‘journey’ to discover their better self.  Naturally, they can be a combination of all of these and have in common terrible dialogue, cardboard good looks and more cliches that you can shake a santa at.  However unemotionally involved one feels about them, they are an utterly compelling and relaxing way to re-charge the all important batteries at this time of year.  Treat yourself, try it and have a great break one and all!

With this blog we want to show a bit about what we do and you can draw your own conclusions about the arena we work in.  A young care-leaver, James,  that we’ve just started working with has found himself in a council flat, lonely, waiting for his benefits and immediately facing eviction due to non-payment of rent.  He reached out to us for help and has openly admitted that he hasn’t been as pro-active as he could have been in getting things sorted out.  He has received confusing communications from his landlord and due to a lack of support, his own anxieties and complex system has struggled to know what to do first and to represent himself appropriately.  He was asked to attend a meeting with his landlord on 25th November and asked my colleague Alex to go with him.  She nearly didn’t go, as her diary was already full.  Thank goodness she did.  It turned out that this meeting was in fact an ‘eviction hearing’.  James froze as accusations of his inaction and reluctance to put things right were thrown at him.  It is not our style to do things ‘for’ young people.  We prefer to work ‘with’ young people to equip them with the tools for next time.  However, on this occasion Alex had to step in or he would have lost his home and been street homeless that afternoon. Alex convinced the landlord that James was engaging with us, was putting things right and wanted to keep his home.  He has been given one week to put things right pending a full decision.  Colleagues at MAP are supporting him with his benefits, budgeting and managing correspondence and he will now attend our Tenancy & Independent Living Skills (TILS) training next week.  This is the right support at the wrong time.  James, and others, shouldn’t be abandoned without sufficient support to help maintain a tenancy in a complex system of housing, benefits and moving in and out of low-paid work.  Support for a group of people five times more likely to be homeless needs to be more responsive, empathic and ‘care-leaver-proofed’ to support a group of people that any society should be doing the utmost to help.

It’s not long now to go until Christmas.  Having spend most of my adult life working with young people in and leaving the care system, I find this time a difficult one to discuss.  I am acutely, and probably overly conscious of what a fraught and frightening time it can be for many young people.  Having grown up away from parents, many adolescents decide with trepidation to spend a few days with family over the Christmas period.  Like many of us, they are pray to the media’s portrayal of an idealised image of families eating and laughing together.  When the reality is quite different, it can be a painful reminder of everything that defines you and your current situation.  I can’t help but think of our young people over this period and want to make our bit of it as festive and warm as possible.  I’m not pretending we’re compensation for families, but some moments of Christmas warmth and cheer don’t go amiss.  We’ll be decorating a tree with young people on 1st December showing as much empathy, sensativety and warmth as we possibly can.

People who know Your Own Place know that we’ve years of experience of working with fantastic young people facing all sorts of challenges as they transition to adult life.  We believe wholeheartedly that with the right support at the right time, this often difficult time can be be made smoother, happier and less difficult.  I have to admit that even I have felt challenged on this belief this week.  In the last week two young people that we have just started working with, both leaving care and both living independently at age 18, have found themselves in total crisis.  Just as winter arrives.  Both have received benefit sanctions for one reason or another, one has had their Housing Benefit stopped and both are hungry, cold and totally alone.  Apportioning blame to local agencies isn’t especially helpful here.  It’s systems that we’ve created that are impossible to navigate if you’re young, alone, unsupported and have emotional barriers to resolving difficulties.  Both young people take responsibility for their actions but don’t know where or how to start to unravel the mess they’re in.  The traipsing around, with no bus fare, inadequate clothing and an empty stomach to try and put it all right would test anyone, let alone someone who neither values themselves nor the cold empty home they are returning to at the end of it.  I’m not saying we have all the answers.  I am glad that we were there at the right time to at least alleviate the worst excesses of hunger and cold and can now start the slow process of recovery for a young person who deserves a better start to adult life.

Social investment appears to be a term that means different things to different people.  It started with old-school philanthropy when some well-meaning (usually) men wanted to alleviate suffering of people begging on the streets in the late eighteenth century.  I’ve no doubt that at an individual level early philanthropy eased individual suffering on a particular day and the philanthropist went away feeling a bit better about themselves.  It’s no different when I give a few pennies to a homeless person by Norwich station today.  Fundamentally though, it doesn’t change anything for the long term.  Social entrepreneurs want to solve big problems like inequality and poverty, not provide handouts.  Then Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) comes along and lots of big businesses and shareholders again get to do some good by making substantial contributions to third sector organisations who hopefully use them wisely.  The issue with both of these is that they are top-down and short-lived.  For more impact I like an approach that sees an ongoing partnership and shared outcomes. Let’s have business involvement in achieving those outcomes with a view to bringing about systemic changes in attitudes and ways of working.  At Your Own Place we are now actively seeking social investors who get something back. They do this not just by being active agents in our social impact, but by bringing new skills and empathy to their own workforce through volunteering, broadening the skill sets of future employees  – and we’ll allow them some good brand awareness too!  Click here for more detail.

Being new to this sector I’ve had an awful lot to learn. I previously had some volunteering experience with young people. Coming into this role I wasn’t sure about the ways to communicate as a professional working directly with young people. In my first few months with Your Own Place I’ve learnt an awful lot on this.

During my first few weeks, on a handful of occasions, I was mistaken for a young service user. I took this as a compliment, naturally. But I was so disheartened by the way I was treated – little to no eye contact and little interest in listening to what I had to say. In these moments of confusion I felt like a burden, I felt judged and I felt uncomfortable.

Don’t get me wrong, 99% of the experiences I’ve had throughout my journey so far have been positive and there are some amazing organisations working with Norfolk’s young people. But these handful of experiences still resonate with me.

For me this was the best learning experience I could have. While professional boundaries are fundamental to the work I do, I place mutual respect at the same level of importance. We cannot build up the aspirations of young people whilst rolling our eyes at them and muttering under our breath.

There are oodles of articles in the related press about the purpose of social enterprise.  Each one confuses me afresh and I’ve decided that my conclusion is to sit on the fence.  There’s no doubt that we’ve got to be at least solvent to exist.  And we’ve got to exist if we’re going to have social impact.  It’s making social impact pay that’s the hard bit.  I increasingly wonder if the broad spectrum of social enterprises is being reflected in these articles.  I have maintained for a while that like every sector, social enterprises are a broad church.  Some, like ours, sell services mostly to local government (cash-strapped) customers.  Others, like Innocent Smoothies, sell healthy drinks to the general public.  Which of us most depends on profit?  Personally I struggle with the concept of ‘social enterprise’ and having shareholders.  Is it ever transparent to have a proportion of your profit going to private individuals?  Here at Your Own Place 100% of our profit goes back into adding value and opportunities to our interventions.  Will that be the case when we grow?  You’ll have to wait and see.

As a social enterprise we’re always looking for ways to generate income that is not funding-based.  When I started the enterprise three years ago I was determined that I wouldn’t be a slave to pursuing endless pots of funding.  Today I remain just as determined (having been that slave for three years!).   It’s about more than just not wanting to spend my evenings meeting someone else’s random deadline.  I genuinely don’t believe it results in good outcomes.  How can jumping through the hoops of a national funder create a project that meets local needs?  We have our mission and whilst keen to avoid mission-creep, in a world of lessening funds, we are required to twist our objectives to fit the requirements of a funder, some of which are sometimes frankly ludicrous in their demands.  That’s why I prefer to talk about ‘customers’.  Our commissioners are customers.  They know best what they want.  If they are buying, then they are in charge and should be getting the outcomes they want.  In times of austerity we accept that their purchasing power may not be high.  That’s why we’re looking at models of joint funding.  We can secure a proportion of the project costs through traditional funding routes and a proportion from a our ‘customer’.  That way we get their literal buy-in, they get a project better matched to their needs and it stays local and outcomes-focussed.

This week has genuinely been one of the most amazing of my career.  We’re all very good at telling everyone how amazing everything is on social media, but this week it’s really true.  Those who know me know I’m capable of cynicism with the rest of them.  However, with the development of our Tenancy Training Flat I have genuinely had my eyes opened to corporate goodwill and the scope of social enterprise to do differently against a backdrop of local authority cuts.  We have been overwhelmed by personal and corporate donations.  Individuals have recognised immediately the value of our work and reached deep into their pockets to help us.  As a fledgling social enterprise we are able to act quickly and efficiently and take advantage of these amazing opportunities.  We are leveraging support we never knew was possible.  Partners such as B&Q and Ikea, whilst wanting to help us furnish and equip our venue, now want to offer our young people work experience and develop a long partnership with us.  Is this the future?  Is social capital and social investment how we are going to make up for the shortfall of the state?  If it is, then it’s great fun, full of possibility and has the potential to reap rewards we didn’t know existed.

The Answers

1.  What is the average amount of debt (excluding student debt) that a 16-25 year old is in? £3000
2.  What is the average age young people start shopping online? Ten
3.  What is the average house price in Norfolk? £280,ooo
We’re getting tricky now…
4.  What is the shared accommodation Local Housing Allowance rate for Norwich £61.45
5.  What’s the new name of the social enterprise for young people’s supported housing services that was part of Flagship? Empanda
6.  Which ward is our Tenancy Training Flat in? Town Close Ward
7.  To the nearest 20 how many young people has Your Own Place worked with in the past year? 134
8.  What is the APR at Norwich Credit Union?  19.6%
9.  Which type of rented accommodation is responsible for most evictions?  Social or private? Private
10.  Most young people lose their tenancy by being evicted because they don’t pay their rent.  True or False? False.  Young people tend to abandon their tenancies because they get in a muddle and don’t know when, how or where to get help.

This is why Your Own Place exists.  We aim to prevent failed tenancies from ever happening to ensure all young people have a safe and secure home.

Most of the time I’m not even sure we’re talking about the same thing.  When speaking with colleagues across sectors and across the county we seem to be variously using words such as ‘philanthropy, social investment, investment, social impact bonds and corporate social responsibility’.  Like any good conspiracy theorist I’m in no doubt that there are people making this field overly complicated so that laypeople like me need their help to unravel it.  However, here in Norfolk we’re not even off the starting block.  I frequently have to telephone funders to ask whether they fund social enterprises and they don’t know themselves.  When putting together a business plan, how can it be robust if we don’t even understand the different methods of raising finance ourselves?  We’re in a vicious cycle of needing to scale-up and not having the funds to get the funds.  Many of my colleagues across the social enterprise sector are pretty sceptical about social investment and the barriers and demands that a group of people that don’t understand their socially minded world don’t understand.  Personally, I’m a magpie.  I like new shiny things and I want to explore it.  But I’m also an experiential learner and until we’ve actually tried it ourselves, I’ll reserve judgement.  But will anyone give us a chance?

Another step forward for Your Own Place.  Last year our supporters generously raised money through our crowdfunding campaign.  Combined with The Tudor Trust funding we employed Alex to support young people into work.  And now Children in Need funding means that Alex goes full time and we’re on the way!  There are loads of good providers across Norfolk supporting young people furthest from work.  And we want to work with them so that our young people have equality of access to all these great services.  However, our ambitions go further than that.  You’ll know that social impact is everything and we need to maximise it.  So whilst we want to support young people into work, we want some of those young people to have very real work experiences as our Peer Trainers.  With all this lovely funding we will be developing the Peer Youth Worker Training Academy.  An aspirational eight-week programme covering the practicalities of youth work as well as cutting edge engagement techniques will be available to young people working with Alex.  They will have opportunities to volunteer and even work on our Tenancy & Independent Living Skills (TILS) delivery and gain fantastic job skills in the process.  Young people learning from other young people is how we maximise our social impact.

https://www.yourownplace.org.uk/216-2/

Since announcing The Training Flat I’ve been stunned and delighted by the offers of help and donations. If you’re not up to speed, we’re renting a flat from Norwich City Council.  In it we will be delivering our fantastic Tenancy & Independent Living Skills (TILS) courses.  Just like our young people when they get their first home, it will be totally empty.  So we’re working with all our stunning friends and partners to kit it out.  After the initial offers of hoovers and crockery, we then had financial donations too.  Last week Alex convinced a local tattoo parlour to do some artwork in the flat and Nelson’s Journey rewarded us with a TV.  On Monday Rachel Blackburn from Us2U Consulting called me with the strangest offer yet!  After a party at the weekend, she had some leftover sweets.  She dropped off a massive bag at No8 Thorpe Road (I’ll come to them!).  Sweets feature in all our courses with young people and adults alike – so we’re hugely grateful.  The amazing Sarah at No8 Thorpe Road is looking after all these things until we move into the flat in August.  Our friends at Heath Lodge have offered stationary, which is hugely valuable as The Training Flat becomes our first office.  We’ve just been offered a TV stand as well as some money for curtain poles etc by Reality Estate Agency.  And as I write this we have a tentative commitment from a flooring firm to provide laminate AND KFC have offered us all the furniture from their old restaurant on Prince of Wales Road.  Wow – what a list of good will, generosity and commitment to what we do.   Still lots more to collect and based on our experience so far, we’re pretty optimistic.

Are you tired of it?  Are you drained by it? Are you bored of the politicians forgetting that life goes on for all of us that are trying to make a difference?  Then I’m sorry to add to your fatigue.  However, I can remain silent no longer.  I’d like to make a number of points, as briefly as I can.  The first is that as a third sector organisation run by human beings I don’t think I should feel afraid to express political views.  All too often the sector is afraid of losing funding and remains quiet.  However, we work with many that are voiceless.  If we don’t raise our voices, then we do our beneficiaries a dis-service.  Secondly, perhaps in the same vein, is the paucity of the debate locally and nationally in the VCSE sector.    We are told to be ‘entrepreneurial, to be tolerant, to be loving’.  This is business as usually as far as I’m concerned and not active enough.  Complaining, being unhappy and being angry are part of the grieving process and legitimate responses that then lead to real action.  And finally, and this is a more political point about the lack of social cohesion, xenophobia and other distasteful characteristics that have been highlighted this week.  Are we really surprised by this behaviour?  It seems to me that democracy and politics in this country, on its five year cycles and constant vying for position, is based on pitching people and communities against each other.  After any period of time when some people feel let down and encouraged to turn on those around them (for example to tell on neighbours committing benefit fraud), is it really any wonder that under pressure we continue in the same vein and turn on the underdog as we perceive them?  I do believe in opportunities on the horizon.  However, I also believe that some responsibility has to be taken by politicians when they get round to being on control again for the behaviour and social inequalities that have lead to the result as well as its aftermath.  Are they role-models for behaviour?

This week I caught up with one of our mentors, (Sally) and her mentee (Christina).  They’ve been meeting every fortnight for a year and meeting them both is like intruding on old friends.  The picture is of a card that Christina bought for Sally to say thank you.  What’s so special about the volunteer mentoring relationship is how much they both get out of it.  Sally is cautious of not using cliches, but talks of how amazingly rewarding it is to unlock potential and nudge Christina to do things she wouldn’t otherwise get round to.  And these aren’t small little things.  These are things that if Christina hadn’t been nudged to do them, could have eventually led to homelessness.  It’s clear they’re going to miss each other, but Christina also recognises the progress she’s made.  I have such respect for Christina because she gave it a go and was open to the possibility of change and challenge.  She’s such a convert to mentoring that she’s even agreed to help us gently persuade other young people to get involved.  If you’d like to be a volunteer mentor, please get in touch.

On Sunday 5th June we joined colleagues, partners and amazing volunteers at The Norwich Cathedral Volunteers Celebration Picnic.  The impact is often calculated in long reports, but anyone who has worked closely with volunteers doesn’t need a report to know the difference they make.  And it’s great timing for us, as we are currently evaluating the impact of our volunteer mentors in Norwich.  We’re sad that the funding for this project has ended in Norwich and working hard to secure more.  It’s very inefficient to recruit and train mentors for a short-term project, only to let them go and start again when a new round of funding appears.  For the moment though, let’s dwell on their successes and the difference they make.  A young person describing her mentor as ‘crucial’ to her current success and ‘not knowing where I’d be without her’ says it all.  We’re training more volunteer mentors for our North Norfolk and Broadland project on 7th and 8th July. If you interested in making a difference click on the link to find out more.

We’ve seen a big increase recently in Tenancy & Independent Living Skills (TILS) courses being delivered 1-2-1 to young people.  This is often because the young people are in college or working and can’t attend a group course.  We usually travel to wherever they’re living, but are as content delivering in a coffee shop if the young person feels like getting out.  What has been interesting this week is to observe three different young people.  They are all roughly the same age, all leaving care locally and all moving to independence very soon.  And yet their knowledge is a gulf apart.  The youngest and least experienced knew most about renting privately and the oldest and most ‘worldly wise’ could barely name a welfare benefit or the circumstances in which she might claim them.  Notwithstanding the extraordinary change they are about to experience by moving from their supported environment to living independently, it naturally poses challenges for us, the trainers.  We have a set of tools, games and interactive techniques that must adapt to each situation, each learner and each learning style.  What isn’t in doubt is just how much they get from these sessions with us.  Noticeable of late isn’t that they necessarily come out as perfect budgeters or experts on Universal Credit, but that they are starting to do the thinking that’s required.  They’re starting to plan.  And with that they’re less anxious and dare to plan more.  It’s a virtuous circle.

I’ve been working with young people for nearly twenty years. It’s easier in lots of ways.  I’ve got loads of tools and tricks that mean I respond to the situation, come up with new methods of engagement and make the training fun.  But I’m not desensitised to their stories, which although this can mean heartache, it also means I’m human and able to react as human and not a robot. But it’s still hard too.  Why?  No matter how great our courses are, no matter how hard we try, no matter my unshakeable belief in people’s resilience and capacity to change, we are just one piece of their puzzle.  Our young people’s lives are so complicated and full of challenges that I still want to do more and ‘solve’ everything.  I have neither the skills nor time to do this and nobody needs ‘solving’.  Of course it’s a positive because it drives me on to do more and to work more collaboratively with others who share some of the answers.  All the young people working with us this week want to stay working with us, and that engagement must be the first step.  So let’s keep up the good work.  Read a one-page impact report of this week here.

 

 

There are times when I’m so exhausted by thinking about what we do that I don’t know what I think any more.  These times are helped by coming across someone else having the same thought and being braver than me, by saying it.  Approbation of our thought process is sometimes needed to move forward and this has happened twice this week in different ways.  My peers at the School for Social Entrepreneurs on Wednesday helped me to see the challenges of scaling up and personnel in a new way.  It had been lurking in my thoughts, but when five people are saying the same thing, it gives your thoughts a new validity and unlocks action.  I also struggle massively with the negative connotations that surround us about people on benefits, low incomes and the material choices people make.  When you’ve been championing a cause for so long and witness so much obstruction, it is natural to question your own belief system and start to wonder if the media, who have a vested interested in getting viewers, are right after all.   Lisa Mckenzie wrote a book about life on the Nottingham estate where she grew up entitled ‘Getting By’.  In it she brings honesty to the Jeremy Kyle conundrum of why when we’re struggling for money we go and buy something we can’t afford.  The first point is that most of us buy things we can’t really afford a lot of the time.  This is not a symptom of one group of people.  Secondly, if life is really, really tough and you’re living day-to-day financially, is it that wrong to buy a pair of nice shoes?  If that’s the first thing that has made you feel good about yourself in months, then isn’t it the purchase of a kind of therapy akin to yoga, a gym membership or a good meal?  Of course we can get into the consequences of not paying the rent or the electricity bill, but who am I to stand in judgement of someone who wants a bit of ‘feel good’ when so little does? I’m off for a run in my expensive running shoes…

This week saw three days of Tenancy & Independent Living Skills (TILS) Training in King’s Lynn.  Commissioned by Children’s Services, we delivered three packed and innovative days to seven young people leaving local authority care.  We were generously hosted by Broadland Housing Association and Alex Hand from Breckland Council also briefly joined us on the second day to share her housing expertise.  Three days of content takes careful planning.  With two staff we had enough content for five days, allowing us to respond to the mood, energy levels and learning styles of those in the room.  Some activities evolved into longer ones, whilst others were cut short when the young people visibly flagged.  Seven was a good number for the size of the venue and their learning needs.  When undertaking individual work, most required 1-2-1 learning support and blossomed with this additional help and encouragement.  Our group started the week apprehensively, anxious of meeting new people and as very reluctant learners.  To watch them request games, interact with each other, find new girlfriends (!) and offer to present to each other but the end of the week is the most rewarding and hard-earned part of what Your Own Place does.  Well worth an exhausting three days.  Read our one-page impact report here.

This week we’re delivering one of our hugely engaging Tenancy & Independent Living Skills (TILS) courses on behalf of Children’s Services in King’s Lynn.  For all the amazingness of meeting Lemn Sissay for our research launch last week, nothing really beats what we’re really about – supporting young people in transition.  These seven young people, all on the cusp of moving to independence for the first time, are absorbing so much during this course.  Again and again we hear the refrain ‘Why am I only learning this now?  Why didn’t we do this in school?’.  Why indeed.