Homeless intervention

Our innovative homeless intervention projects in south and southeast London use the experiences of our own service users to reduce the number of young people finding themselves homeless.

Working in partnership with local authorities, the service works with 13-18 year olds to increase their awareness of homelessness through peer-led presentations.

The project trains young people – all of whom have experienced homelessness – to talk to young people in schools, community colleges and youth groups about the realities of homelessness and temporary accommodation.

The pilot project, run in close partnership with the London Borough of Greenwich, has proved a great success and is expanding into additional boroughs.

The homeless intervention project was designed to facilitate and support a cross-borough approach by:

• allowing the development of a pool of young people as trainers, enabling the project to respond to requests immediately
• enabling St Christopher's to take a much more peer-led approach to developing the service, with decisions taken by peer educators, with guidance from St Christopher's staff
• addressing the fact that many young people go to school in a different borough to where they live
• ensuring that information is consistent across the area.

The Greenwich project also comprises an intervention and mediation service to prevent homelessness caused by young people running away from the family home. This involves helping families rebuild their relationships and providing advice and support on issues such as benefits and overcrowding.

Young people are also informed about other services that may be useful to them, such as education, training and employment advice, or longer-term support.

If you are working with a young person who is interested in becoming a Peer Educator, please download and complete the referral form and send it to

The young people do not need to have any experience of peer education, but should be 16-24 and have some experience of homelessness, which could be rough sleeping, living in a hostel or living at home in unsuitable accommodation.

If you are interested in commissioning St Christopher’s services, call 0208 780 7800 and ask for Development - or click here