People recovering from homelessness need opportunities to develop skills for employment to sustain independent living. Current support is often inadequate and fragmented, and people in this situation may have very complex needs which make traditional learning models challenging and inappropriate.
St Mungo’s supports around 32,000 people a year, and recent surveys showed that 54% would like to be in work. St Mungo’s works mainly in London with some other locations in the South of England, however homelessness is a UK wide issue, so the number of future potential learners is vast with an estimated 200,000 known homeless households recorded in 2020.
This project will develop a prototype learning portal accessible online by St Mungo’s service users and keyworkers. This portal will encourage vocational skills-building through online courses, tuition and independent learning, all guided by a service user’s keyworker. It will record progress so both staff and service users can accurately gauge progression and plan for introducing move-on from homelessness services and next steps at the right time.
When learners have completed their skills programmes and achieved their goals, keyworkers can support them with next steps including moving into independent accommodation, referrals to employment specialists, into volunteering, or into further education.