Operating during the cost of living crisis
The Gingerbread Centre helps families without a home in Stoke-on-Trent and the surrounding area get back on track and back into their own home. Family is at the heart of what we do.
We provide temporary supported accommodation for the whole family in one of our 33 flats or houses for as long as necessary, while our Family Support Team establishes why the family lost their home, puts together a package of help to address the specific issues the family faces and, ultimately, get the family back into a home of their own - regardless of how long it takes.
Both facilities are staffed 24 hours a day. One caters for teenage parents and the other for parents of all ages.
Tackling preconceptions
Anyone can find themselves in a situation where they lose their home and it can happen quite suddenly. People tend to have a preconceived idea about homelessness and often just associate it with rough sleepers, but the problem is much bigger and more complex than this and is a particular issue in Stoke-on-Trent and the wider West Midlands area.
It is a traumatic experience for a family to lose their home, and in particular for children who have lost their bedroom, garden, possibly the family pet and may be separated from their friends.
From the referrals passed to The Gingerbread Centre, the two most common reasons for families losing their home at present are domestic violence and mental health issues, both of which may be the consequence of historic challenges that the family has faced.
We accommodate a diverse range of families at the centre. The common factor is that they have all lost their home, but beyond this their circumstances can be very different. Because of this, each family is given a bespoke package of support put together by our Family Support Team to address their specific needs, and each family is assigned a Key Worker. Families stay at the centre for as long as they need to, which in some cases can be for up to two years.
We aim to get families back into their own home as quickly as possible, but equally want a family to be able to manage a tenancy and the life-long term, so they don’t find themselves homeless again. Through our Floating Support Scheme we continue to support families for up to three months after they have moved out.
Children in particular can be traumatised by homelessness and can lose their confidence and self-esteem. We run an Activity Club to address these issues to help children make new friends and rebuild that lost confidence. It also enables families to reconnect in a relaxed and safe place.
We also support both teenage and older expectant mothers, and those with new-borns, who have been made homeless. Our support extends to helping with registering births, healthcare and arranging hospital appointments, as well as assisting the resident with becoming a new mum and all that entails.
Because of the challenges our families face, we have a Wellbeing Practitioner as part of our support team. Her role has focused on keeping families well, both emotionally and physically. She works with resident families at both our centres, promoting mental health awareness with service users who are experiencing mental ill health, aiding their wellbeing by bringing in external agencies when appropriate.
Private family accommodation
Although the centre provides supported accommodation in its flats and houses, these are private accommodation for each of the families housed. The flats are provided fully furnished with whatever is required to meet the family’s needs.
The families are responsible for looking after their living space whilst they are with us including cleaning and looking after the furniture, fixtures and fittings and reporting any issues so that our staff can arrange repairs. Each flat is fully inspected when a family successfully moves back into a home of their own and will be redecorated if necessary ready for the next family to move in.
We are very fortunate in that the staff involved in the front line delivery of our services are experienced, dedicated and compassionate, and work well together as a team. There is never a question about their motivation, but at times they have to make some difficult decisions in a challenging environment.
We have structured management within the charity which ensures that the right support is also given to our staff. All members of staff are required to undertake relevant training and to ensure that it is kept up to date.
Complex needs and increasing demand
The two biggest challenges that we face at the moment are firstly, the number of referrals we are receiving, which averages two per week, and where those referrals are coming from. As a Stoke based charity, our priority is to support families in the local area but because of the uniqueness and quality of the support we provide, we can receive referrals from as far afield as Manchester, Wolverhampton and the wider West Midlands, or even further.
This means that our Family Support Team has to prioritise referrals depending on the urgency of the need, which is extremely difficult from both a physical and emotional point of view, and it has to create a waiting list of families needing our accommodation. We endeavour to maintain contact with them to reassure them that accommodation will be available as soon as possible.
The second challenge is the complexity of the referrals we now receive. Many families can be in a bad place emotionally because they have fled domestic violence or are facing mental health challenges. There may be substance or alcohol abuse involved both of which need specialist support. This means that the support that they need can be far more complex than what we have provided in the past and in some cases the wellbeing of children has to be given special consideration.
Cost of living crisis impact
The main lesson we have learnt is that homelessness, particularly where families are concerned, is a complex and diverse situation and therefore, there is no “one fits all” rule into how the family’s needs are met. We have to be flexible. Also, where appropriate, we have learnt to utilise external support agencies to back up our Family Support Team with specialist advice.
The work of the centre is funded in a number of ways. We do get some statutory funding from our local authority but that has been reduced quite significantly over the last couple of years. We receive housing benefit for our families whilst they are with us and this covers the cost of their rent for the flat they are living in. The balance of our income then comes from fundraising.
The challenge for the charity is that our costs are increasing, in particular energy costs. Our families are also having to cope with the broader cost of living crisis and we are seeing more and more demands on our family emergency fund and on our emergency pantry, which many of our supporters kindly keep replenishing.
We are a relatively small charity - but are well structured. The Finance Team have overall responsibility for the financial management of the organisation. Although decisions can be taken to address issues as they arise, there is not normally any effect on the delivery of front line services.
However, we are seeing the need for increased fundraising. Our Activity Club, for example, is mainly funded through Children in Need. However, because of limitations on its funding, we have a shortfall in income if the club is to continue to operate fully, which equates to around £24,000 over three years. Because of the importance of the club as part of the support we provide to families, we have been exploring funding opportunities to plug the gap.
Aviva Community Fund
We are very grateful for the support that we have received from the Aviva Community Fund via pledges from employees and match funding of public donations. This income has particularly supported the work of our Family Support Team and the help that it gives to our families. The support has enabled us to develop programmes to assist our families with budgeting and financial management as well as lifestyle issues such as preparing cheap, nutritious meals on a budget.
The much appreciated support we have received from the Aviva Community Fund is a great way of raising funds for specific causes, and the fundraising has exceeded our expectations.
We have also learnt some tips along the way of how to make this fundraising as successful as possible.
It’s crucial to put together a project that is relevant and relatable to supporters, and communicate its goals through a good video that relates to the project and is not too generic. In the project description, introduce yourself with a picture so that would be supporters can relate to someone associated with the charity.
Regular and interesting project updates are important, and we always make the point of individually emailing everybody who makes a pledge at the time they do so.
Looking to the future, we have an ongoing programme of looking at and developing new income streams from trust and grants, corporate partnerships, events and community fundraising, thus hopefully enabling us to maintain and develop our support programmes.
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