Surrey County Council has been awarded nearly £3million to provide additional, tailored support to homeless people and other vulnerable adults, to help them rebuild their lives.
The council, working with a range of public service and voluntary sector partners, made a successful bid for funds under the Changing Futures programme, which aims to support those who face a combination of homelessness, substance misuse, poor mental health, domestic abuse or contact with the criminal justice system.
The Changing Futures programme is a £64 million joint initiative by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and The National Lottery Community Fund; the largest funder of community activity in the UK. The fund is for local organisations to work in partnership, to better support those who experience multiple disadvantage.
Surrey County Council’s Cabinet Member for Health; Cllr Luke Bennett added; “One of our key priorities is to reduce health inequalities, so that everyone in Surrey can thrive, with no one left behind. Alongside Surrey’s prosperity and economic strength, some stark differences in health and wellbeing exist within the county.
“This funding will enable us to further support the most vulnerable in our communities and help them to turn their lives around. Not only will the award help hundreds of people who are already financially struggling, it will also help us to prevent others from running into similar financial difficulty.
I would like to acknowledge and thank our partners on this initiative including; District and Borough Council housing colleagues, the voluntary and community sector, our local NHS partners, Surrey’s Police and Crime Commissioner, the probation service and a range of rehabilitation services”.
A specialist “trauma informed” outreach service is currently being developed in conjunction with vulnerable people, homeless organisations and experts in mental health, substance misuse and domestic abuse. As part of this work, staff and volunteers at Surrey’s homeless charities and organisations will be trained to assist those who have experienced and/or are living with trauma. A charter (currently under development), will set out in more detail how this will work.
This activity, taking place in Surrey under the Changing Futures programme, will feed into a national evaluation project, to help inform national policy on how the most vulnerable in our society can optimally be supported.
Posted from Surrey News