St Christopher’s contributes to youth homelessness conference

10 December 2007

The report of Greenwich Councils ‘Tackling Youth Homelessness’ conference has just been published, praising both St Christopher’s staff and service users for their valuable input.

The conference, which took place on 10th October 2007 at the Charlton Athletic stadium, set out to consult with partners on the council’s homelessness strategy, to contribute ideas and suggestions on improving services to young people, and to share and highlight best practice on service provision for young people.

In the ‘Hearing from Service Users’ section, Martin Wright, team leader of St Christopher’s Greenwich Floating Support Service, introduced four service users to the conference. The young people talked thoughtfully and honestly about their own experiences of being homeless. 

Later, homeless intervention officer Harry Wilkinson presented two innovative projects that Greenwich Council has commissioned St Christopher’s to deliver:

• the Homelessness Intervention Project 
• the Peer Education Project.

Harry also introduced Keisha McEwan, a peer educator. She explained in detail the content and the importance of the sessions in schools where she and her fellow peer educators inform young people about homelessness.

Finally, St Christopher’s South London area manager Donna Kerr, in partnership with Karen Keane of Greenwich Council Supporting People, prepared and facilitated a workshop on service user involvement.

Our contribution to the conference demonstrated St Christopher’s strengths in partnership working, strategic planning and delivery. Greenwich Council’s policy officer Kay Perry thanked both staff and service users for their input and hard work.