Projects supported by Byte Night

Solving youth homelessness is about more than taking young people off the streets.

We asked some of our projects which will be funded by the money you are raising by sleeping out, to tell us more about the work they do with some of the most vulnerable children, young people and families in the UK.

Use your cursor to roll over the map, then click to find out more.

Mentoring

Inverness

Your support will allow Action for Children to extend our partnership with sister charity Chance UK. Based on successful pilots in Liverpool, Belfast and Inverness, this initiative aims to reduce youth crime and anti-social behaviour by providing one-to-one specialised mentoring for children with behavioural difficulties. This work is tailored to local circumstances and has shown to improve behaviour, helping children develop better anger and frustration management skills, and to also develop more self control. With these skills, the children gain increased confidence and improved concentration, allowing them a better opportunity to achieve their full potential.

Clacks Path Housing Service

Clackmannanshire

We provide housing support services to young, single people aged 16 to 25 with accommodation needs. We supply an outreach service to young people who have either moved directly to their own tenancy, have moved from the project into a tenancy, or to those who are in temporary accommodation, such as a B&B, awaiting either a tenancy or a place within the project.

We often meet young people and their families at a time of huge crisis for them, so we need to be extremely flexible and sensitive to their individual needs, while ensuring that we're finding them the best solutions to their problems.

Click here to read a case study

Alexandria Prep for Life Housing Service

Dunbartonshire

We are a residential homeless project working with young people aged 16-21. The project can accommodate 10 young people at a time. They can stay at the project up to 6 months until suitable move on accommodation is identified. Whilst at the project we work alongside the young person to develop a support package tailored to their individual needs focusing on independent living skills such as budgeting and cooking which will then help them to sustain a tenancy on their own and lead a better life in their communities.

When a young person moves into the project they often have no means of income. They have no money to buy everyday essential items such as toiletries or food. They often move into the project with little or no clothing. It can take several weeks before a young person’s benefit claim is processed & until then they have to rely on friends or family to help them out.

Click here to read a case study

GEN R 8

Glasgow

We offer one-on-one support to local young people who are homeless or at serious risk of becoming homeless. We offer a full support network to our young people so we can make sure that every area of their lives is improving, including finding them a safe place to live and arranging professional help to deal with their long-term problems.

We work with young people on obtaining and securing a tenancy and we then help them with independent living skills such as budgeting and cooking. We also give them advice on education, training, finding and keeping a job and work closely with them to give them all the personal and emotional support they need.

East Lothian New Horizons Housing Support Service

East Lothian

We offer one-on-one support to young people who are homeless or at serious risk of becoming homeless. We try to offer a full support network to our young people so we can make sure that every area of their lives is improving.

Focusing on the future is really important for our young people, and we try to help them overcome their problems to see a future filled with hope and happiness.

Click here to read a case study

Sperrin Lakeland Floating Support Service

Northern Ireland

Action for Children’s Sperrin and Lakeland Floating Support Service works with care leavers and young people aged 16–17 at risk of homelessness to help them develop the skills needed to maintain their tenancy and assist with accommodation.

It includes a 24-hour on-call service. We provide housing related advice and support to people with a diverse range of needs. These can include accessing housing, setting up a home, debt management and social & leisure activities. Support is available to anyone in the community including those who have alcohol issues, are experiencing domestic violence, or are a young parent.

Click here to read a case study

Hyndburn Family Intervention Project

Accrington

Our job is to be there for children and families in our community at times of crisis, often when a child is facing exclusion from school, from their family home or from their local community because of extreme anti-social behaviour.

These are usually very upsetting and difficult times for everyone involved, and our role can be anything from offering counselling and mediation to finding emergency short-term housing for a young person unable to stay at home.

Our main challenge is that the very focus of our service means we can't predict when we're going to be most needed. And often we need to respond immediately to emergency situations. Because of this we need to resource a 24/7 on-call service, and make sure that we have enough options for emergency 'time out' residential placements for vulnerable or disruptive children – not always the easiest thing to ask for!

Gabriel Court

Manchester

Gabriel Court offers one-on-one support to young people between the ages of nine and 25 who are experiencing difficulties in their life, whether it's at home, at school or with social problems such as drug abuse or crime.

We try to offer a full support network to our young people so we can make sure that every area of their lives is improving, whether it's finding them a safe place to live, arranging professional help to deal with behavioural problems, offering mental and sexual health advice or working with the youth justice services.

Focusing on the future is really important for our young people, and our youth employment service provides training for young people who have found it hard to find work or stay in education because of their background or family situation.

We usually meet young people and their families at a time of huge crisis for them. So we need to extremely flexible and sensitive to their individual needs while ensuring that we're finding them the best solutions to their problems, whether it's helping them deal with the youth custody services or finding emergency accommodation for a young person no longer able to live at home.

Click here to read a case study

Family Solutions

Derby

Family Solutions helps families at risk of break down to make the best decisions for their children, but they also help separating couples, with children, to make the right decisions regarding property and finance. We provide a safe and confidential place where parents can meet and discuss family issues that might be affecting their children.

The project specialies in mediation. This is a voluntary process which helps to find the right way forwards for families with the child at the centre.

The Youth Support Team

Pontypridd

The Youth Support Team works with local young people aged 16 - 21 who are setting up their first homes after leaving care, or because they can no longer live at home for whatever reason.

We try to support young people to develop their independence, helping them with a wide range of issues such as budgeting, debt management and health as well as employment, training, education and even parenting skills.

We usually meet young people at a time of crisis for them, often when they've become homeless. So we need to extremely flexible and sensitive to their individual needs while ensuring that we're finding them the best solutions to their problems.

Bayswater Family Centre

Bayswater, London

Bayswater has been providing services to homeless families since 1984. They offer a wide range of services from practical assistance, advice and advocacy to counselling and adult education classes for homeless families living in B&Bs;, hostels, or temporary accommodation – and to families who are street homeless or about to be evicted. Bayswater provides the support and assistance needed to keep parents and their children from homelessness.

Phoenix Project

Morden, London

Phoenix works closely with young people and their families to prevent a family breakdown which is We do this through being as flexible as possible with our support, to meet their specific needs in a way that suits them best and will have the most positive impact.

Basically, this means helping each family to work out what they want to change, and helping them find the best ways to make those changes.

Challenges our families face include aggressive behaviour, drug and alcohol addiction, bullying, peer pressure, self-harming and poor relationships with care givers. Because of our diverse community we often need to involve an interpreter or work in partnership with other agencies in our community. We are very proud of what we achieve, and have had many MPs and government officials visiting our project to hear about our success in keeping our families together.

Here 4 me

Newbury

We’re focused on children's rights – making sure that the needs of all the children living in our local community are met, whatever background they come from or disabilities they have.

We also work with many young people living in care or in vulnerable family situations, listening to their concerns and dealing on their behalf with issues at school or other services whenever we're needed.

As you can imagine, children from vulnerable backgrounds often have problems that affect many areas of their lives. So we regularly find ourselves talking to a large number of different people on behalf of each individual child.

This can include housing agencies, schools, doctors and the young person’s family wherever necessary. Getting a positive result for our young people can take time, patience and, of course, valuable resources.

East Central Multi Agency Project (EMAP)

Bristol

We work at the heart of our community, offering advice and support for a wide range of issues facing families, to try to make their lives easier, healthier and happier.

We teach parenting skills to help change behaviour that puts children at risk and we offer advice to young and single parents. We also work closely with vulnerable families to prevent their children being taken into care.

Basically, we respond to whatever challenges families are facing within our local community. But, like so many of the families we support, our finances are limited.

Dorset Nightstop

Dorset

We provide emergency short-term accommodation for 16 to 25-year-olds at risk of homelessness. We work closely with local referring partners to secure long-term accommodation for these young people, where necessary.

Councils only have a duty to provide emergency accommodation for young people with a priority need. Nightstop offers young people an opportunity to stay in a safe, friendly environment, while long-term solutions to their homelessness are examined. Many areas of Dorset have no emergency accommodation for young people and Nightstop will provide an essential part of the newly agreed Young People’s Housing Strategy which aims to prevent homelessness.

Click here to read a case study

Action Training

Kings Lynn

Action training works with some of the hardest to reach young people in their local area who have suffered from bullying or have been withdrawn from main stream education. The project works to provide foundation learning programmes, work placement opportunities, and personal support to ensure that each young person has the opportunity to deal with the issues of their past and build towards a successful future.

Click here to read a case study

Mentoring

Inverness

Clacks Path Housing Service

Clackmannanshire

Alexandria Prep for Life Housing Service

Dunbartonshire

GEN R 8

Glasgow

East Lothian New Horizons Housing Support Service

East Lothian

Sperrin Lakeland Floating Support Service

Northern Ireland

Hyndburn Family Intervention Project

Accrington

Gabriel Court

Manchester

Family Solutions

Derby

The Youth Support Team

Pontypridd

Bayswater Family Centre

Bayswater, London

Phoenix Project

Morden, London

Here 4 me

Newbury

East Central Multi Agency Project (EMAP)

Bristol

Dorset Nightstop

Dorset

Action Training

Kings Lynn

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*You will be charged £5 plus one message at your standard network rate. Action for Children will receive between £4.70 and £4.99, depending on your network provider. By using this service, you agree that we may contact you in the future. If you’d rather we didn’t, text ‘AFCSTOP’ to 70800. Your money will go towards Action for Children’s work to help prevent youth homelessness.