17 July

Homewards marks two years of progress

The Lord Mayor’s Appeal charity partner Homewards marked its two-year anniversary in Sheffield recently with His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales leading the celebrations. 

Aiming to showcase new early intervention work to prevent homelessness in schools, Prince William’s Sheffield visit also brought together six flagship locations with national partners and sector leads. 

After a foundational first year, Homewards is now firmly in delivery mode, progressing impactful, scalable solutions to prevent homelessness in the six flagship locations: Aberdeen; Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole; Lambeth; Newport; Northern Ireland and Sheffield. 

Over 100 initiatives to tackle homelessness in the six locations are now underway, involving the creation of new homes, funding and finance, data, early intervention, employment and changing the narrative to reframe perceptions of homelessness and inspire optimism that it can be ended.

Homewards also unveiled a new strand of work focused on early intervention to tackle the root causes of homelessness at a school in Sheffield, with two more schools to follow this year. 

The new initiative surveys young people to identify those who are at greater risk of homelessness and provides them with the support they and their families need at the earliest possible point. 

‘Upstream’ is modelled on the Australian Geelong Project, which saw a 40% reduction in youth homelessness and a 20% reduction in the number of young people leaving school early1. Roundabout – Homewards Sheffield Coalition member and South Yorkshire youth homelessness charity – will deliver the work as lead partner, with the support of Centrepoint. 

This work is scalable and Homewards’ ambition is to roll the survey out across the six locations to positively impact more young people and families, following this initial pilot.

In another milestone moment for the programme, they also celebrated the first residents moving into homes delivered by Homewards through Sheffield’s Innovative Housing Project (IHP). 

During the birthday event in Sheffield, Homewards also highlighted its key areas of focus from its second year including:

• Delivering homes for people: Residents have moved into properties delivered through Aberdeen and Sheffield’s Innovative Housing Projects (IHPs). Across the six locations, over 300 units of accommodation are currently forecast through the IHPs and other housing projects that Homewards is supporting, including The Duchy of Cornwall’s work in Nansledan.
• Mobilising data to identify homelessness early: Homewards is working with each of the six locations to develop ways to use data to identify those at risk of homelessness and intervene sooner to prevent it. This work will include a focus on predictive analytics which will be a key focus in year three of the programme. Homewards Activator, Salesforce, is supporting on an ambitious national data strategy across the six locations.
• Creating funding opportunities for innovative solutions: Nineteen new locally led initiatives have been funded through the Homewards Fund so far, which offers up to £500,000 of flexible seed funding for each flagship location to support the delivery of their Local Action Plan across the lifespan of the programme. In addition to what has already been awarded by the Homewards Fund, significant additional funding leveraged through partners and Coalition members means that nearly £3 million has been secured for the locations so far. Alongside this, a major new partnership between Homewards and Lloyds Banking Group has unlocked £50 million of new finance to deliver homes across Homewards locations.
• Generating employment for people experiencing homelessness: New training and employment opportunities have been created across the six locations through local initiatives and a partnership with national leading recruitment expert, Hays, to secure commitments for meaningful employment and training opportunities.

Liz Laurence, Programme Director for Homewards said: 

“When we launched Homewards, our aim was simple. To demonstrate that together, it’s possible to end homelessness, working with six locations. Two years in, Homewards is firmly in delivery mode. Collaboration has been crucial in making things happen, and this year has highlighted the power of partnerships on a national level, but also the importance of local togetherness which has allowed for such meaningful progress. We look forward to continuing and building on this work into year three of the programme and beyond.”  

Learn more about The Lord Mayor's Appeal Charity Partners here