Safe Moves: Piloting prevention services for young people at risk of homelessness

Abstract

Youth homelessness has been recognised as a significant social problem since the late 1980s, and local authority homelessness strategies now include preventative services as a key area of development. However, youth homelessness prevention services are a relatively recent innovation in the UK, and there is only a small literature on their effectiveness. Safe Moves, developed by the Foyer Federation and Connexions during 2002‐2004, represents the first national youth prevention model and offers young people support with life skills, peer mentoring and family mediation. An independent evaluation by the Centre for Housing Policy, University of York concluded that Safe Moves was preventing homelessness for some young people, although the challenges of establishing projects in a predominantly crisis‐orientated culture were significant.

Citation

Quilgars, D., Jones, A. and Pleace, N. (2005), "Safe Moves: Piloting prevention services for young people at risk of homelessness", Housing, Care and Support, Vol. 8 No. 1, pp. 4-10. https://doi.org/10.1108/14608790200500002