I can not believe the Foyer had its 5th anniversary in April this year! The time has flown by!

In the last five years we have accommodated over 137 young people and given advice and guidance to numerous others.

The Foyer’s holistic provision encompasses good quality accommodation for 24 young people, access to training and education, life skills support and job search.

In addition to this, residents are given support to address any other personal issues they may have that are limiting their life chances or hindering their personal development in life.

Safe Start believe that by giving young people a secure environment in which to live and sufficient motivation and encouragement, it enables them to work towards and achieve their life goals and make a successful transition from dependence to independence, becoming fully integrated members of the community when they leave the foyer.

LEARNING POWER AWARD

Safe Start have recently been working with the Foyer Federation to enable us to deliver a City in Guilds qualification called The Certificate in Learning Power to our residents.

The qualification has been developed specifically to be delivered to homeless and or vulnerable clients. It is designed to focus on the individual's needs and to capture their capacity to learn and develop.

The structure of the course is designed to be delivered by Staff through the existing support services that we already offer. The residents at the Foyer build a portfolio of evidence that is examined by an external verifier. The course will be run in addition to any college education courses or work they are already undertaking.

The Foyer Federation will fund Safe Start to deliver the course to 30 learners by March 07 when we will be able to access the next round of funding to deliver to further clients in 07/08.

EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT STATUS

We currently have:

LIFE AND WORK SKILLS

It is not only academic skills that the Foyer works with young people to achieve.

Our life skills programme addresses areas such as communication skills, respect, healthy living, and drug and alcohol awareness. It also provides practical skills such as how to decorate a room, basic tiling, wiring a plug and putting together flat pack furniture!!!

Through working in Partnership with other agencies our residents have been able to access courses that address other areas of their lives such as, presentation, interview skills, the ethos of work and over coming challenges to name a few.

Our residents have attended courses with: THE PRINCES TRUST, READY FOR WORK AND FAIRBRIDGE.

RESETTLEMENT

Although Safe Start can not guarantee move-on for its residents due to the terrible shortage of housing in London, we work tirelessly to try and secure good housing options for when young people are ready to leave the Foyer.

In 2005/06 we had 31 people leave the Foyer to various different destinations:

EX-RESIDENT SUCCESS - 2:1 BA Hons degre in LAW

It is great when ex-residents keep in touch with us and let us know what they are up to.

One of our first residents at the Foyer, John - Patrick Kyruzi, has recently been back to the Foyer to tell us he has just graduated from university with a 2:1 BA Hons degree in LAW.

He has also just been accepted on a Masters course in Law at Kings College London.

Safe Start are now assisting him to access funding for this.

Safe start are very proud of his achievements and wish him every success for the future.