Services: Youth Research
 |
Sarah Kennedy, Youth Research Officer, pictured, recently completed research around young people's accommodation needs. The overall purpose of the research was to examine the role, appropriateness and effectiveness of existing accommodation and support provision in meeting the needs of homeless young people by directly consulting with them. |
|
CHNI Launch youth research
|
CHNI Launch of research report into the accommodation and support needs of homeless young people in Northern Ireland The Youth Unit recently conducted a 16 month research project studying the accommodation and support needs of homeless people aged 16-21 year olds across Northern Ireland. |
 |
|
 |
The Minister for Social Development, Margaret Ritchie, MLA, launched the final document on The 26th November. |
|
| The report is available upon request. For copy of report, contact Sarah Kennedy, Youth Department. Tel: 90246440; or by email: sarah@chni.org.uk |  |
|
Common Monitoring of Homeless 16-25 Year Olds
Tuesday 1st September saw the regional launch of Common Monitoring of Homeless young people in Northern Ireland.
The Common Monitoring project has been commissioned by the PSI Youth Homelessness Sub Group, a cross-departmental, cross-sectoral Steering Group, whose membership includes DHSSPS, DSD, Regional Health Board representatives, PBNI, YJA, Education and Careers and other voluntary agencies. This sub group has been tasked with co-ordinating a detailed regional analysis of the nature and scale of youth homelessness and ensuring that relevant information be reviewed to identify themes, trends or important issues that may better inform strategic planning.
CHNI have been appointed to undertake the regional scoping exercise, the aim of which is to:
• provide definitive quantitative information on the scale of youth homelessness,
• analyse and outline the context in which young people are becoming homeless,
• provide baseline information on the needs of those young people vulnerable due to homelessness.
Furthermore, it is hoped the exercise shall provide an analysis of the structural and practice issues impacting on young people’s access to, and engagement with, services and begin to identify gaps in service provision for young people, in particular Early Intervention and Preventative services.
The project funded and mandated by Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, Department of Social Development and the Northern Ireland Office, is Northern Ireland wide in scope and involves the collation of information on all young people aged between 16-25 years who present to agencies as homeless or at immediate risk of homelessness between September and November 2009.
The agencies involved in the scheme include:
• Local NIHE offices,
• Health and Social Care Trusts,
• Probation and Youth Justice Teams,
• Supported Accommodation and Floating Support Providers,
• Education and Careers Services
• Social Security Agency and
• A range of other community and voluntary agencies, including advice and advocacy services.
Using a Common Monitoring approach, the process entails completion of a standardised form by all agencies when a young person presents to them as homeless or at immediate risk of homelessness. A unique code is used for each young person to ensure accurate counting and the tracking of movement of young people through services. The use of this code also allows each return to be anonymised, thus protecting each young person’s right to privacy.
The Youth Unit at CHNI commenced work on the scheme in February and spent time reviewing common monitoring schemes and forms already in operation across the UK, exploring the risk factors and early indicators of future homelessness and developing the research tools in consultation with our project management group and practitioners. The scheme was piloted for one month in June 2009 in the legacy Southern Board area, after which the process was reviewed in close consultation with involved agencies.
Information and training seminars were hosted in June and August in preparation for this month’s regional launch of the scheme. Following completion of the three month monitoring period, the findings will be collated and analysed with a report of the Northern Ireland wide findings produced and presented to both funders and participants in January 2010.
If you feel that this scheme is relevent to your organisation and you are not already involved, please do not hesitate to contact the Youth Unit at CHNI for further information.
