SHP Strategic Report DIGITAL - Flipbook - Page 5
4 Single Homeless Project
Strategy 2021-2026 5
Introduction
Our vision is of a society where
everyone has a place to call
home and the chance to live
a fulfilling life.
Single Homeless Project was founded in 1975
by a group of six homeless men seeking an
alternative to rough sleeping or staying in
common lodging houses or spikes. Whilst we
have grown beyond recognition from those
early days, these origins have continued to
shape the way we work and our vision of a
society where everyone has a place to call
home and the chance to live a fulfilling life.
The pandemic has reconfigured the world,
making it more unpredictable and forcing us
to adapt, but with this, it has also presented
us with opportunities for bringing about
change. We have strengthened our position
as a significant provider of homeless and
homelessness prevention services in London
and we now help more people than ever.
We have increased our service reach both
geographically and for people at different
stages of homelessness, expanded our
specialist programmes designed to address
unmet needs and delivered the national
Fulfilling Lives initiative in Camden and
Islington as lead agency. This growth has been
enabled, in part, by the reputation we have
built for the quality of our services and for the
commitment of our staff, and their willingness
to go the extra mile for our clients.
Our Way of Working
We believe that services should create
environments that aid and do not hinder
in people’s recovery. We have developed a
structured and evidenced based approach
to supporting our clients called ‘Our Way of
Working’. This enables us to work effectively
with people with multiple disadvantage
who represent a significant proportion of
our clients. This term describes people who
experience several problems at the same
time, such as mental ill health, homelessness,
drug and alcohol misuse, offending and
family breakdown and who are likely to have
struggled over long periods, let down by our
support systems. Our approach is based
on the conviction that, no matter what
challenges they face, everyone we work with
has the capacity to take control of their lives
and to shape their own future.
An uncertain future
The economic fallout from the pandemic has
put enormous pressure on many Londoners
and we are likely to feel the impact for years
to come. With unemployment rising, young
people disproportionately affected, and more
people facing precarious and stressful living
situations, we could well see an increase
in those forced to sleep rough on our city’s
streets. We are more determined than ever
to ensure that single people experiencing
homelessness in London remain able to access
the services they need, and that as a charity,
we have a positive and sustained impact on
our clients’ lives.
for everyone who needs them. But too many
people are let down by outdated approaches
and one size fits all services. We’re raising
our ambition to influence service design and
system change. By using our insight and
expertise and by amplifying our client’s
voices, we will become a voice for change.
Our increased focus
Our new strategic priorities
Many people forced to sleep rough experience
chronically high levels of poor physical
health. In response to this, our new strategy
increases our focus on tackling health
inequality. We have introduced specialist
health leads to support clients to access the
care they deserve. We have also broadened
our programme of wellbeing and recovery
initiatives to provide clients with more
opportunities to take part in sport and other
physical activity because we know that by
doing so, they will greatly improve their
overall health.
Our new five-year strategy sees an evolution
of our work, making the most of our collective
experience, expertise and ambition. We focus
on four strategic priorities: delivering urgent
services to single Londoners experiencing
homelessness, helping our clients on their
journey to independence, developing new
services that address unmet needs and
influencing service design and system change.
Public services and systems designed to
address homelessness should work effectively
Liz Rutherfoord Chief Executive
Jon Rosser Chair of Board of Trustees
The years ahead will be challenging and
unpredictable, but we are ready for them.
Our growth has been enabled, in part, by
the reputation we have built for the quality
of our services and for the commitment
of our staff, and their willingness to go
the extra mile for our clients.