Sojourner

Schemes: Sojourner
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About Us

Sojourner provides supported accommodation within Supporting People’s Resettlement Tier 1 services for single young homeless people aged over 16. Ten bedspaces are specifically designated for the use of young people from a BME background.

Sojourner is located in the Chapeltown and Harehills areas of Leeds. Support services cover a wide range of needs such as benefits, rehousing, education, training, employment, social / leisure activities, life skills, relationship breakdown, health and accessing information.

The Project has a strong network of support with links with statutory services, such as Probation Service, The Youth Offending Team, Pathway planning, Housing Advice, Connections and other voluntary agencies.

The Project believes in productive joint-working with local providers and other external agencies. It has both single flat unit and group home accommodation.

Aims & Objectives

1. Our main aims are to provide good quality accommodation for single homeless young people in a supportive, healthy and safe environment.

2. Offer young people the opportunity to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to live successfully in their own independent accommodation

This is achieved by:
Providing accommodation with support services to single young people, to enable them to resettle into an independent tenancy or other appropriate housing after 6 months.

Providing fully furnished, comfortable, and secure accommodation which offers privacy to the tenants

This includes giving advice on practical issues such as benefits, life skills, managing money, settling into accommodation and the area, informal counselling, linking to other agencies for training, employment or education, advocacy, and other issues of concern to them

Assisting with move-on and resettlement

Support Services

All tenants are allocated a keyworker who is specifically responsible for them. The keyworker is responsible for each tenant’s assessment and support plan and maintains contact with other agencies involved in their care. Tenants are expected to co-operate with their keyworker in working towards the achievement of negotiated and agreed goals, and to attend their support plan meetings. Other staff are available to provide support.

The support services offered by the Project include:

Using the support / care planning approach with an emphasis on multi-agency networking

Where needed and appropriate, support and expertise from external agencies is accessed on issues such as drug/alcohol use, sexual health, counselling and legal problems

Help with finding their own accommodation, providing practical support or assistance to tenants who are ready to move on and support to those who have moved on into their own tenancy to enable them to live and maintain a successful tenancy

Referrals & Conditions of Occupancy

All service users are given an Assured Shorthold Tenancy with the aim of assisting service users to obtain more permanent accommodation after 6 months.
Tenants are expected to pay rent regularly, inform staff of any change in their circumstance i.e. welfare benefits, work or training, to attend and participate in house meetings and to abide by the house rules and the Tenancy Agreement.

Referral Criteria:
• Single male or female
• 16-25 years of age
• Homeless or in housing need
• Priority is also given to referrals from BME communities and from the Emergency Tier of Supporting People services.

Referrals are accepted from a wide range of statutory and voluntary agencies.

Initial contact is usually by telephone call to the Project. A comprehensive assessment is carried out immediately on the basis of support need and risk, by inviting the referral for an interview with a project worker and a visit to the Project.

The application is then discussed with the team, and the referrer informed of the decision.

If a referral is assessed as appropriate and a vacancy exists, accommodation can be offered. Where a vacancy does not exist, the referral will be placed on the waiting list for consideration when a vacancy becomes available.

For some referrals further information is usually required such as ex-offenders, probation or youth offending team referrals.
(All referrals / enquiries to Sojourner Project

Appeals

Where a referral request has been refused and the applicant or their referrer is not satisfied with the reasons given, they have the right to appeal the decision. Appeals should be made within 10 working days of receipt of the written decision using the accompanying appeals form. Once received an appeals meeting will be arranged within 5 working days chaired by a Service Manager at which the applicant and their referrer have the opportunity to state why they disagreed with the decision. An appeal decision will then be made within 3 working days.

Contact Us

Staff cover is provided between:
9:30am and 5:00pm (Monday to Thursday) and 9:30am to 4:30pm (Friday).
The project also maintains an out of hours emergency contact number for tenants to contact staff in case of emergencies

SOJOURNER STAFF TEAM
Service Manager : Jocelyn Bass
Team Leader: Anand Sharda
Project Workers: Joscelyne Brown, Natalie Hadi

BY TELEPHONE:
Tel: (0113) 262 7271 or (0113) 235 1105

BY EMAIL:
ash@leedshc.org.uk