In the next spotlight of our Supported Housing Week series, we’re taking a closer look at our specialist support services for adults and the important role they play in supporting people through some of the most challenging circumstances.
Across Greater Manchester, Blackburn, Sheffield and St Helens, our teams work with single people and families with a wide range of needs. This includes people experiencing homelessness, living with mental health challenges or difficulties with drugs and alcohol, as well as women and families fleeing domestic abuse or requiring additional support.
What brings these services together is our belief that support should always start with the person.
Everyone’s circumstances, experiences and goals are different, so there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Our Independence and Wellbeing colleagues take time to understand what’s important to each individual, what skills they already have and what they want for their future. Working in a strengths-based and trauma-informed way, they focus on building trust and creating stability to help people take positive steps forward at a pace that works for them.
What makes our schemes unique is that, in many of them, Great Places provides both the home and the support around the person. That gives us the opportunity to join things up and make sure people receive the right support, at the right time. And with this, we often find progress is not one big moment. Sometimes it’s the person attending an appointment or learning how to manage a tenancy, while for others it’s rebuilding a relationship or beginning to trust people again. While these steps can seem small in isolation, they often form the foundation for change, helping people improve their health, improve their confidence and independence, and move towards a more positive future.
For one customer at our Docherty Project, that journey started with having somewhere safe to call home. Commissioned by Manchester City Council and delivered by Great Places, the Docherty Project is one of the country’s few specialist alcohol harm-reduction services. It provides short-term accommodation and tailored support for people experiencing homelessness alongside alcohol dependency, empowering customers to reduce alcohol harm, maintain independence, and move on into permanent housing.
The impact of the service can be seen in the experiences of people like Danielle, who credits the support she received for helping her rebuild her life and have “hope again”,
Earlier this year, the award-winning project also welcomed Andy Burnham, then Mayor of Greater Manchester, who met customers and colleagues to learn more about the difference specialist supported housing can make. Following the visit, he described the project as providing “a stable foundation and the opportunity to rebuild lives, breaking the cycle of homelessness”. You can read the full story on our website.
The Docherty Project is just one example of what supported housing can achieve. At a time when demand continues to grow, services like these provide a vital safety net for so many people, helping them improve their wellbeing and move towards greater independence, while reducing pressure on other public services.
This Supported Housing Week, we’re proud to celebrate our Independence & Wellbeing schemes, and the incredible impact services like these make for thousands of people every day. The stories of our customers are a reminder that while a place to live is the starting point, the relationships, opportunities and steady support around someone is what creates lasting change.
