Your Own Place is an award-winning social enterprise delivering Money, Housing, Tenancy and Employability support to prevent homelessness
Working in the Community
Our place-based community offer was developed to reach people where they are. Following a shift in workshop engagement after the COVID-19 pandemic, we recognised the need to rethink how we offer easily accessible, preventative support.
With funding from Norwich Consolidated Charities, we took the time to embed our team in local communities and really listen, to understand what works, what is needed and what barriers stand in the way. This offer continues to evolve with the communities involved.
Rather than expecting people to come to us, we believe that embedding ourselves in the local community helps to build trust, break down barriers, and offers people the opportunity to have conversations when they are ready.
With a focus on building financial confidence and self-efficacy, exploring housing priorities, and participants self-identifying solutions, we can offer:
Communities with high deprivation face greater barriers to accessing sustainable housing & employment. A place-based approach can better reach people at risk of homelessness because it brings support closer to where people live, work, and seek help, rather than expecting them to navigate complex services and rural geographies themselves.
Co-location and close working with other support agencies and community volunteers facilitates a more holistic approach to support. Working together to coordinate support, we see more purposeful and appropriate referrals, reducing the risk of people becoming fatigued, feeling “passed around” or falling through gaps between services.
Factors that contribute to homelessness are often linked to wider challenges such as debt, health conditions, rural isolation, relationship breakdown, or unemployment. A place-based approach recognises that communities have valuable strengths, networks, and resources that can support people before they reach crisis point. By working alongside individuals to build confidence and agency, and connecting them with the wider support within their community, this approach helps address the underlying causes of housing insecurity and shifts homelessness support from a reactive, crisis-led model to a proactive, preventative and person-centred one.
Anyone in the community – people accessing their local foodbank, attending community venues or already engaging with other support services.
Facilitators are based longer-term in community venues, and meeting in local coffee shops, in people’s homes, or spaces where people feel comfortable.
To read more about our current Lottery-funded Inspiring Change community project, click here
To get regular updates about where the facilitators are based in Norfolk, follow our social media channels.
74%
of trainees end support saying they feel more confident to find solutions to problems they face
89%
of trainees end support saying they feel more confident asking for help
100%
of trainees end support saying they feel more in control of their financial situation
We know that (often well-meaning) advice is frequently over-offered, becoming the default regardless of what the person already knows or is capable of. Expert advice is often essential, but an over-reliance on advice undermines the belief that people can solve their own problems.
Our drop-ins, 1-2-1s and workshops focus on keeping people in charge and working alongside them rather doing for them. We start with and value the skills, knowledge, experiences and networks that people already have. This helps build confidence and interdependence, as preferable to dependency, so that people are better equipped to support themselves in future.
“I didn’t think I could do it on my own, but you listened and suggested I follow my own advice… I don’t hear it while I talk, but you do.“
–Ben, Private Renter, Diss
Norwich Foodbank speak very highly of their involvement with Your Own Place. “They put those with lived experience at the very centre of all they do and are extremely professional in their approach. Through conversations and peer-to-peer workshops at the food bank they’ve been able to hear and support discussions around the issues people are facing and are very skilled at building relationships and engaging with people“
Jo Stevenson, Area Manager, Norfolk and Suffolk, The Trussell Trust
‘Just to update you about one of my goals I am pleased to inform I achieved and I paid off my rent arrears, thank you for all your help. I am so proud of myself, next goal is council tax’.
Our Mission
To prevent homelessness through innovation, collaboration, and the belief that everyone deserves the opportunity to thrive
Our Vision
Everyone has a safe and sustainable home
Get in Touch:
Office phone: 07927 433895
Email: ceo@yourownplace.org.uk
Your Own Place,
Level 4, Carrow House,
Norwich, NR1 2TG
©Your Own Place CIC. We are registered in England and Wales. Company number 08751344. All our profits go to back into the business.
