Eliz Hopkins

Connecting organisations across the Black Country through Street Support West Midlands

On Wednesday 25 March, organisations from across Wolverhampton, Walsall, Sandwell and Dudley came together in Wolverhampton for a Street Support West Midlands networking event, in collaboration with the West Midlands Combined Authority. The focus of the morning was to connect organisations, share experience, and strengthen how work across the region supports the prevention of homelessness. […]

Renters’ Rights and the shift towards prevention in the West Midlands

Across the West Midlands, partners have been working for years to move homelessness support upstream. The focus has been on prevention, on building systems that reduce the chance of crisis before it happens. The Renters’ Rights Act sits within that same direction of travel. It changes how the private rented sector works, with the aim […]

Brighter Beginnings: supporting families in Birmingham

Elayos is a Birmingham-based charity working alongside mothers and babies through pregnancy, birth and those early months that can feel both joyful and overwhelming. Their work is rooted in doula support. That means walking alongside women in a practical and human way. Listening, advocating, and being there through pregnancy, labour and after birth. Many of […]

More than the essentials: what we heard in Dudley, and what we can do next

On Tuesday 3 March 2026 at Brierley Hill Civic Hall, partners from across Dudley came together for More than the essentials, hosted by Black Country Foodbank and Healthwatch Dudley in partnership with West Midlands Combined Authority. The focus was poverty, food insecurity and what it will take to respond together. Across the morning, three perspectives […]

Prevention is designed in the everyday

Each autumn, every local authority in England records how many people are sleeping rough on one single night between 1 October and 30 November. This is called the rough sleeping snapshot. It is not a count of everyone who experiences homelessness across the year. It is a one night estimate, used to track patterns and […]

Preventing and Tackling Homelessness with Faith & Community Groups in Wolverhampton

💚 Calling all faith and community groups in Wolverhampton Register Here The WMCA Homelessness Taskforce is working in partnership with The Good Shepherd and City of Wolverhampton Council to bring together Faith and Community groups across Wolverhampton who are engaging with people affected by poverty and homelessness. Street Support West Midlands will be there too, […]

WMCA Homelessness Taskforce

Webinars, Events, Training, Funding Opportunities   Regional Training Programme 2026-29 The WMCA Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Programme 2026-29 seeks to add value and complementary outcomes to the work of our Local Authority and wider partners. To build upon the good work established in recent years, they will be continuing to deliver a regional training programme […]

Wolverhampton’s Winter Pressures Fund: partnership that’s making a real difference

This winter, many people in Wolverhampton have faced the harsh reality of homelessness, or the fear of losing their home.At the same time, local organisations have been working together to make sure help reaches people when it matters most. One example is the Winter Pressures Fund.An initiative led by Good Shepherd Wolverhampton, in partnership with […]

There’s a better way through Alternative Giving in the West Midlands

Across the region, people continue to show deep compassion for those facing homelessness. Every day, residents stop to ask how they can help, and many want to make sure their kindness leads to real, lasting change. In a recent article, Rough Sleeping: Ways to Help, we explored why focusing our help safely and in coordination […]