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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
A joint article from Street Support West Midlands and StreetLink If you have ever walked through town late at night and seen someone settling down on a cold pavement, you will know the feeling that follows. A mix of sadness, concern and the question of what you can realistically do to help. One practical action […]
It’s not always easy to know how to help when someone is facing homelessness. Across the West Midlands, more than 300 organisations are working every day to prevent people from losing their homes, to support those who are already without one, and to make sure no one has to experience homelessness again. Their work follows […]
Across the West Midlands there has been steady, thoughtful work to strengthen the way organisations come together to prevent and relieve homelessness. Many people will already have heard of the Commitment to Collaborate toolkit, often called C2C. It was created by the WMCA Homelessness Taskforce with Birmingham Voluntary Service Council, and it was refreshed in […]
Your compassion matters Across the West Midlands, the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) Homelessness Taskforce is bringing partners together to design out homelessness by focusing on prevention at every stage. This work follows the Positive Pathway model, which offers a simple way to see how support fits together. The Pathway starts with universal prevention, which […]
Streetwise Opera has launched “Opera Pioneers” Streetwise Opera is a UK-based performing arts charity founded in 2002. Its mission is to inspire and empower people who are experiencing or have experienced homelessness. They do this through co-creative opera workshops in homelessness centres and major arts venues, public performances where participants perform alongside professional artists, and […]
A new resource launched by Birmingham City Council and Spring Housing Association this month is shining a long-overdue light on the vital issue of how people experiencing homelessness are impacted by period poverty, and what frontline organisations can do to support them with dignity. The Period Literacy Toolkit, authored by Thea Raisbeck, Head of Research […]
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