Early prevention and advice

National Youth Homelessness Scheme

Youth Access (logo) Youth homelessness is often the result of a failure to resolve everyday problems - such as relationship, money, rented housing and education issues - at an early stage. Such failure can lead to problems escalating and multiplying until the young person is drawn inevitably towards social exclusion and homelessness.

Timely provision of education, information and advice on the inter-related emotional, practical, personal and legal issues affecting a vulnerable young person can make all the difference. This module considers the roles of:

Services that build young people's skills and resilience to avoid homelessness and cope with problems when they arise;
Services aimed at raising young people's awareness of rights, responsibilities and where and when to get help;
Independent information and advice services that young people need when they experience serious housing and other related problems;
Targeted youth support services for young people with complex needs.

This module also provides evidence-based guidance for service planners on how to design early prevention and advice services that will meet young people's needs and be accessible to 'hard-to-reach' young people.

Finally, it explains the links between Youth Homelessness policy and other relevant government initiatives dealing with youth advice and support services, such as Youth Matters and the Community Legal Service, and how co-ordination of these initiatives can bring additional benefits.

The module has been developed to help local authority housing teams to identify current good practice and to highlight developments that could be taken forward or supported by local authorities.

(researched and written by Youth Access)