Rapid service for young homeless expands into Rotherham

South Yorkshire charity Roundabout launched the service in Sheffield in 2018 in response to an increase in rough sleepers aged under 25, leading to the development of a new street outreach team.

The dedicated case workers actively go out into the community, identify homeless young people who need intensive support and help them access accommodation and develop their long-term living skills.

Following the success in Sheffield , the service is now being extended into Rotherham , with the creation of a new support team in the town.

Roundabout chief executive Ben Keegan said: “This group of young people have extremely complex needs and often can’t access mainstream housing and homeless services as they are quite chaotic, often experiencing early child hood and continued trauma, have general ill health and undiagnosed health conditions and can often be taken advantage of by older homeless people.

“They can be very wary of help from our services for various reasons and they may have even been excluded from other services in the past.

“Our incredible staff work across the city in all weathers, trying to engage with these young people, sometimes just sitting on the floor with them in the rain over weeks trying to establish trust until eventually we can encourage and support them to come off the streets and into one of our properties.

“Here, we provide wrap-around support from our staff and other specialist services so they can start the process of healing and recovery and start to live meaningful lives in their own home.”

Successful applicants for the new Rotherham posts will manage a caseload of young people to build relationships, identify needs and risks, write support plans, deliver life skills sessions and set goals and targets.

Rapid Rehousing joins the existing range of Roundabout facilities in Rotherham, commissioned by Rotherham Council, which offer a pathway to young people to gain independent living skills and to be supported to achieve their goals.

To find out more about the Rotherham vacancies visit www.roundabouthomeless.org/work-with-us.