Porchlight is one of the foremost charities working across Kent to support vulnerable people and prevent homelessness.
Over the past ten years the charity has expanded its services from Canterbury to surrounding areas in East Kent, with services focussed in Canterbury, Dover, Thanet and Ashford. In the last year the charity has further grown to cover the whole of Kent after being awarded a contract by Kent Supporting people to run its outreach service across the county.
Porchlight provides a host of services aimed at changing vulnerable people’s lives for the better either through providing supported accommodation, tenancy sustainment support or by helping them gain access to specialist support from other organisations.
The charity works with a wide variety of people. A large number of our service users have issues that increase their vulnerability such as a physical or mental health problem, addiction or offending history. Sometimes their issues are the reason they have become homeless and for others they developed because they became homeless. Our staff specialise in helping people deal with these issues and working with the person to develop tailored support plans.
Other people can become socially isolated in their own homes or because of a traumatic incident such as a bereavement or relationship/family break-up are unable to cope with day to day life. Porchlight ensures people know where to get professional help and encourage them to take it. The support they receive helps them to rebuild their confidence and aims to give them the skills they need to live independently.
Chief Executive, Mike Barrett, is excited about how the charity is evolving, “The expansion of the Outreach Service throughout Kent is a major step in reaching vulnerable people across the county. The work of the staff at Porchlight to help our service users is amazing and the way our service users are committed to changing their lives is often inspirational.”
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Notes to the Editor:
1. Porchlight is a forward thinking and innovative charity, passionate about helping people and communities. Porchlight is a forward thinking and innovative charity, passionate about helping people and communities. We help change lives by working to prevent homelessness, to help find accommodation for vulnerable people, prevent the breakdown of communities and to support independent living. The charity was established in 1974 as Canterbury Cyrenians and works throughout Kent.
2. In 2007-8 Porchlight helped over 1,400 vulnerable people. Porchlight projects include:
Kent Outreach Service:
Our street outreach team work across Kent including working within prisons to help offenders who will be released from prison homeless.
Young Persons Services:
This includes a direct access hostel, longer stay hostel and shared house, providing support for a number years, until each individual is ready to live independently. Specialist support is also available from our Young Person’s Mental Health service.
Mental Health:
We run the only housing project in Kent specifically for people with enduring mental ill-health. We also have a young persons’ mental health service that enables young homeless people with mental health problems to better access the health services they need.
Supported Accommodation:
We have hostels in Canterbury, Dover, Ashford and Ramsgate. They range in the levels of support provided from high support needs with staff available 24hrs a day, to medium support with staff available on a 9-5pm basis.
Homelessness prevention:
This is a preventative ‘floating support’ service that provides support to vulnerable people in their own home who are at risk of becoming homeless. Many of these clients have been through the hostel system and are almost ready to live independently but just need a little support every now and again.
Building Skills:
We have a team that works with people accessing any of our services and helps them develop their skills and education. We provide tailored training and encourage people to get involved in the running and improvement of their project, or volunteer on a more formal level in the organisation. Porchlight is committed to involving our service users throughout all the activities of the charity. They are actively encouraged to become involved in education, employment, volunteering and service user involvement opportunities.
Community Support:
The aim of the project is to ensure that issues and concerns affecting the quality of life in the neighbourhoods are represented and tackled. We aim to achieve this through advocating on residents’ behalf to professional services and working directly in the community, ensuring practical support, advice and information is available. The project co-ordinates regular drop-in surgeries, resident group meetings, training and workshops.
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