Helping young people thrive Settle Annual Report 2015/16
Settle is an award-winning social enterprise that designs and delivers high impact support services to vulnerable young people Contents Chair s Welcome Co-Founder s Reflections Our Strategy and Achievements What we do Sustaining Tenancies Supporting Careleavers Financial Activities Awards Thanks 1 2 3 4 6 10 12 13 14
An amazing piece of work, built on simple principles and a compassionate and practical intent Rob Trimble, Chair
Welcome from our Chair Starting a business is always full of uncertainty, but starting a social business comes with an extra dollop of challenge. Not only are you trying to drive a sustainable bottom line, but your success is measured by the positive difference you can make to real peoples lives. My definition of a social enterprise is a business that turns hopelessness into hope and has money left over to do it all again tomorrow. While Rich and Katie are dedicated to improving the lives of the young people we serve, they are equally committed to creating a financially sustainable model that grows and prospers in the years ahead. It s been an honour to be part of Settle s journey from the very beginning and to witness the growth of an amazing piece of work, built on simple principles and a compassionate and practical intent. This is Settle s first annual report. As the inaugural Chair, I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to all our friends and supporters who have been with us on our journey so far. We look forward to building upon our success and supporting more young people across London over the next year. Rob Trimble Chair 1
Co-Founder s Reflections We set up Settle to break this vicious cycle by training at risk young people with the skills needed to live independently. We re proud to have started realising this mission. This year was all about testing our model, and the results have been really encouraging. One year on from our first pilot in Enfield, 100% of our participants have sustained their tenancies or had a positive move. We have now delivered our support services to 115 young people in five London Boroughs. It has been an exceptional 12 months for Settle. Building upon the success of our pilot, we have gone on to support over 100 vulnerable young people across London this year. We started Settle after working in hostels and seeing first-hand how many homeless young people move into their first home frighteningly unprepared to live independently. The majority have never lived alone before, and without a safety net to fall back on, small issues can quickly snowball and lead to eviction and homelessness. We want to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of our partners and supporters who have helped us this year and made this work possible. These are challenging times for young people. They have been hit hardest by six years of austerity and an unforgiving housing crisis, leading to a spike in youth homelessness. We re determined to be there to meet this growing need and stop young people falling through the cracks in our capital. 2 Rich Grahame CEO Katie Slee Service Designer
Our Strategy and Achievements 2015/16 High Impact Programmes We aim to provide high quality services that prevent homelessness and improve the life chances of our participants. Growth and Reach We want to make sure every young person has the support they need at this crucial juncture in their lives. A year on from our first tenancy mentoring pilot, 100% of our participants sustained their tenancy 96% of all our participants agreed that they felt more confident managing their money and living independently Voted Best Tenant Support Programme at the 2016 National Housing Excellence Awards Supported 117 young people Worked in 5 London boroughs Delivered 205 1-to-1 sessions Developed our programmes to meet the needs of care leavers, unaccompanied minors and ex-offenders Innovation We are committed to embedding best practice in our service design and testing new approaches to tackling youth homelessness. Building a social business It is important to us that we remain independent and sustainable, to ensure that we can deliver outcomes year after year. Developed an asset-based approach to build resilience rather than focus on deficits Worked across systemic boundaries by supporting participants even if they get evicted Co-designed our programmes in partnership with young people Our tenancy sustainment service has created 5,300 of social value per participant Developed partnerships with housing providers, charities and local businesses Secured trading income by delivering 6 contracts to housing associations 3
What We Do Our programmes support young people facing difficult transitions to adulthood. They are designed to equip young people with the skills, attitudes and behaviours needed to live independently. We work with looked after children, care leavers, young people at risk of or experiencing homelessness, unaccompanied minors and exoffenders. Our Services Tenancy Mentoring Life-Skills Training Consultancy 4 Supporting vulnerable young people moving into their first home Preparing young people by teaching them the skills needed to live independently Working with clients to research, design and deliver impactful ways of supporting young people
The programme so far has been immensely successful, and they have demonstrated, on a small scale, how Settle could ultimately have a serious national social impact. Sahil Khan, Head of Community Investment South, Southern Housing Our Approach Grow the good Young people first Good intentions are not enough We focus on building young people s strengths, not dwelling on their weaknesses. We prioritise the needs of the young people we work with above all else, working to overcome barriers in the system. We always go the extra mile to create the impact our programmes seek.
Sustaining Tenancies Winner of the Best Tenant Support / Advice Service at the 2016 Housing Excellence Awards Eviction is now the leading cause of homelessness in the UK. Since March 2015, we have supported dozens of young people to sustain their tenancies. The Need Young people with a history of homelessness can have real trouble adapting to life as a tenant and often struggle to cope. Without the basic skills needed to live independently, they risk eviction from accruing rent arrears, getting into disputes with their landlords and neighbours, building up personal debt and becoming isolated within their community. Tenancy Mentoring Our programme begins as a young person starts their new tenancy. It is made up of six weekly sessions that are one hour long. Our curriculum targets the skills and behaviours needed to ensure a successful transition to independence. Tailored, Practical Support Sessions are delivered 1-to-1 by a trained, experienced mentor. Each programme begins with an assessment that helps to gauge the young person s skill level and where they might need support. The Curriculum Our curriculum is designed to tackle the main causes of tenancy failure. It covers 4 areas: managing money maintaining a tenancy looking after your wellbeing navigating local services 6
Cleverly Designed Resources Each young person receives a Settle welcome pack including spending diaries, calendars and other useful tools to get them organised in their new home. Our resources are co-designed with previous participants to ensure the programme reaches young people at their level. They prompt participants to become more aware of issues linked to their tenancy and promote positive behaviour change. Our Impact This year, our Tenancy Mentoring programme achieved the following outcomes: 18 3 89% young people supported London Boroughs worked in of participants completed the programme 100% 9/10 5,300 of participants who completed the programme went on to sustain their tenancies participants agreed or strongly agreed that they felt more prepapred to live independently average amount of social value created per programme (calculated by using HACT social value calculator) 7
Distance Travelled Our programme addresses 12 key skills across the four areas of our curriculum. When we first meet with a young person we get them to selfassess their confidence and ability in each skill, from beginner to expert. We then work with the young person to tailor our support to their own goals and needs. At the end of the programme they complete the same exercise to see what changes have occurred. Key Beginner Developing Confident Expert Managing Money: Budgeting Maintaining a Home: Rights & Responsibilities Before After Before After Looking after your Wellbeing: Healthy Eating Navigating Local Services: Getting Help Before After Before After 8
There are those days where you re alone in your room and it s just you and the TV. Nothing prepares you for that loneliness. Leila, 23 Leila s Story Leila joined the Settle programme in March. Moving into Origin Housing was her first time living alone. Before this she was homeless, staying at hostels and sofa surfing with friends. This was a very precarious moment for Leila. Although her new home gave her much needed personal space and security, she was struggling to make ends meet and had small but growing rent arrears. She was not budgeting enough to last the fortnight. All of this was having a negative impact on her mental health. Due to problems with her family, her support network was wafer thin. Together, we decided to focus in on three main issues: her budgeting skills, mental wellbeing and rent arrears. By the end of the programme, Leila was much more confident at managing her tenancy. She was in credit on her rent account, had been accepted to start an apprenticeship with Origin Housing and Gingko and had been signposted to Enfield Mind.
Preparing Care Leavers The odds are stacked against young people leaving local authority care. That s why we have developed a specialist programme to prepare them for adulthood. The Need Leaving home is a challenge for everyone. There are many learning curves - paying bills, dealing with a landlord, cooking and cleaning - which demand different skills, knowledge and resources. While the average age for most young people leaving home is 22, on their 18th birthday, looked after children are no longer in care and must start to live independent of support. This means that care leavers who often lack the emotional, financial and practical support most young people rely on, face an uphill and lonely battle towards independence. The consequences are stark and well documented. Outcomes for care leavers are significantly worse than any other group of young people, with 30% of all homeless people in the UK growing up in care. Life Skills Training Our life skills toolkit has been specifically designed to support care leavers to move-on successfully. The curriculum has been co-designed with young people leaving care and our partners, the Rees Foundation. 10
The Curriculum We cover the following life skill areas: LIFE SKILLS SYSTEM PRIORITY PAYMENTS BANKING DEALING WITH DEBT MANAGING YOUR HEALTH HEALTHY EATING COOKING SUPPORT NETWORK Managing money Maintaining a home Having a good lifestyle BUDGETING WAYS TO SAVE BORROWING & CREDIT DEALING WITH PROBLEMS BEING ACTIVE RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES SECURITY INTERESTS Building Emotional Resilience Often support programmes are focused on a person s deficits, ie. what they re lacking, be it housing, employment or skills. Our work is asset-based. We hope to help our participants understand how their experiences have made them resilient. One of the highlights of the programme is encouraging young people to reflect on their signature strengths, using tools developed by the VIA Institute on Character and the Department Store for the Mind. Impact to date CLEANING FURNISHING & DECORATING LIVING WITH NEIGHBOURS Now more than ever, I see challenge as a positive thing. I ve tried to turn it into a strength. settle Harri, 19 100% of our participants agree that Settle has been useful for thinking about their future 100% of our participants feel more confident managing their money 90% completion rate for our programmes
Financial Activities Statement* of financial activities for the year ending 31 March 2016 Incoming resources Trading income 21,200 Grant funding 35,320 Donations 1,270 Total incoming resources 57,790 Total resources expended 31,357 Total funds brought forward 26,433 * These summary financial statements are not the statutory accounts. 12
Awards & Grants We are proud to have won the following awards for our work: Voted Best Tenant Support Service at the National Housing Excellence Awards (2016) Awarded Beyond Business grant from incubator delivered by the Bromley-by-Bow Centre (2015) Finalists for Excellence in Employment, Skills & Training Award, TPAS Awards (2016) Shackleton Leadership award for improving the lives of young people (2015) Finalists for Community Achievement Award, 24 Housing Awards (2015) Unltd Do-It and Build-It awards for social enterprise start-ups (2015) 13
Thanks We d like to say a special thank you to those who have helped us this year to support so many vulnerable young people towards independence. 14 Partners and Supporters Beyond Business Bromley-by-Bow Centre Department Store for the Mind East Thames Homes Investec Network for Social Change Origin Housing Peabody Poplar Harca The Rees Foundation The Shackleton Foundation Snook Southern Housing Group Unltd Year Here Young Funding Network Trustees and Advisors We are supported by a team of wonderful and talented trustees and advisors. We thank you for your ongoing guidance and encouragement. Individuals We are so grateful for all the individuals who have helped us along the way, whether that was making a donation or introducing us to new ideas and people. Our Participants Most of all, we would like to thank all of the young people who have taken up our offer to make real changes to their lives with such determination and bravery.
hello@wearesettle.org // @wearesettle facebook.com/wearesettle www.wearesettle.org Registered charity no. 1162399