Steph came into a Stonham service in August 2012. Before entering the service she had been drinking heavily, had lost regular contact with her daughter and the rest of her family, and was homeless. When she first started at the service she was glad to have a roof over her head, but that was all. She didn’t want to get involved with us and she wasn’t thinking about the future.
Four months into her stay she had a drunken fight with some other clients and was given her 28 days’ notice. At this point she realised this was her last chance and slowly started becoming involved in her house, helping to redecorate the living room and cooking Christmas dinner for five other clients.
The Youth Action pilot began in February 2013, and although she had little interest in it herself, Steph agreed to accompany another client. However, it was clear that Steph had a lot of great ideas, was passionate about her service, and was keen to challenge stereotypes about young people. In fact, she didn’t like being referred to as a young person because of the associated negative stereotypes.
Over the next few months Steph regularly attended Youth Action. When the meetings first started to be held outside of Maidstone she found it daunting as she didn’t have the confidence to travel, but she started to come to London meetings because she knew they’d be a friendly face at the end of the journey. She also started to get involved in her local area forums where she’d take feedback from Youth Action.
A real turning point for Steph was in June 2013 when Youth Action was planning to hold a Youth Conference in London. Steph approached Sophie, Home Group’s involvement advisor, and asked if she could be involved in planning the event. Steph met with Sophie before the conference to plan the agenda, visit the venue and work out all the logistics for the day. On the day itself, Steph opened the conference and facilitated a workshop with a volunteer from Royal Bank of Scotland.
Steph’s achievement at the conference really boosted her confidence and sense of self-worth. From then on, she made it clear that she wanted to grab every opportunity with both hands. She started co-facilitating involvement workshops to staff, ran exercises at Youth Action, represented Home Group at external events, co-facilitated workshops to senior management and assessed services as a client assessor.
In September 2013, Steph opened Home Group’s national Working Together Conference and showed that young people have a powerful voice, and in November 2013 she presented Home Group’s customer and client awards celebration in front of 160 people. Steph’s success was even recognised externally when she was shortlisted for the TPAS South Young Tenant of the Year Awards.
Steph’s drinking had reduced and she was feeling good so she decided to move into her own property. This was overwhelming but really exciting for her, and staying involved with Home Group helped her stay focused and in control. Overall Steph has been a real inspiration to her peers, giving other clients hope and reminding staff why their jobs are so important.
Sophie Cox is involvement advisor at Home Group
