Crisis

Crisis is the national charity for people experiencing homelessness. They use a model of change which works alongside people on a 1:1 basis to end their homelessness for good. A core aspect of this model of change is our housing work. The coaches support individuals, helping them draw on their own strengths to break down any barriers that are keeping them from accessing housing.

Over the next 12 months, the coaches will focus on meeting the urgent housing needs of people leaving temporary accommodation and those people made newly homeless as a result of coronavirus. In keeping with Lifeline International’s charitable focus on empowering women, the person-centred, strengths-based approach ensures that they are ideally placed to work with women experiencing homelessness. They sought a donation from Lifelines to support their 1:1 coaching work with women experiencing homelessness, helping them into safe and secure accommodation as quickly as possible. Over the next 12 months, the coaches will support around 250 women into safe and secure housing across Great Britain.

Homelessness services are typically male dominated, reflecting the nature of the overall homeless population. Women experiencing homelessness are less in number but encounter other disadvantages too: the stigma they face from the general public is more acute, and they are in constant risk of abuse. It is not uncommon for them to have become homeless in the first place as a result of fleeing ongoing acts of violence – especially domestic abuse. Research into violence against people sleeping rough (I_t_’s_ _n_o_ _L_i_f_e_ _a_t_ _a_l_l_,_ _2016), found that women who were sleeping rough were proportionally more likely than men to be a victim of violence (36% compared to 29%). They were also more likely to receive verbal abuse and harassment (65% compared to 53%).

Lifelines are funding approximately 250 1:1 coaching sessions to support vulnerable women over the course of a year:

To support their 1:1 coaching work with women experiencing homelessness, helping them into safe and secure accommodation as quickly as possible.