orEstablished in 1977 in response to the high numbers of people in Worcester sleeping rough we continue to evolve in response to need & remain the only hostel in Worcestershire.
The events that lead to some becoming homeless are not always obvious or straightforward. We work tirelessly to help people live through homelessness & in order to improve care & support, we have embedded the concepts of Psychologically Informed Environment (PIE) and Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) across the organisation. Our delivery is underpinned by our ‘Theory of Change’, where the ‘End State; (“People who leave St Paul’s have a place where they belong; the skills, capacity and enough support so that Worcester is a place where homelessness is rare, brief and non-recurrent”) is achieved through ‘Decisive Conditions’ (interventions)
This delivery model requires a number of elements to be in place, including a focus on safety, emotional intelligence, connection, communication, resilience and healing. The essence of this approach changes the nature of the question we ask from ‘what’s wrong with you?’ to ‘what happened to you?’ This new emphasis seeks to connect trauma history to current behaviour rather than seeing the behaviour as a character flaw. The screening of ACE’s is fundamental to our service delivery. Combining this & TIC enables us to address the impact of adverse experiences & equip residents with the skills they need to deal with them. This model differentiates us from other charities in this sector & requires the employment of specialist staff; resulting in significant positive impact.
For example, last year 79 new people accessed St Paul’s; 87 people left of which 40% secured accommodation either within our accommodation portfolio, private tenancy, social housing or had secured employment with accommodation through our Kitchen Assistant Training Programme; of the 58 residents who attended our Counselling service, 2 enrolled at College, both have applied to join the Housing Register, 3 secured tenancies, 2 moved into our resettlement houses & 100% reported an improvement in their mental health & wellbeing. Since 2017 we have provided employment to 10 residents/former residents as Kitchen Assistant trainees, Peer Mentor, Support Worker, Housekeeping and many volunteering opoortunities.
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