Announcing Safe & Sound Project

“The Y has been awarded £92,955 from Homeless Link’s Ending Women’s Homelessness grants programme, funded by the Government’s Tampon Tax Fund.”

The Y are one of 29 charities across England, working with women who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, to receive a grant. Almost 200 organisations applied for a portion of the £1.85 million pot.

Women’s homelessness is a significant national issue with many women having experienced violence and abuse contributing to their homelessness. Over 640 women sleep on our streets every night and thousands more do not have access to a safe or suitable home.

Homeless Link’s grants programme aims to help end women’s homelessness by building capacity for gender- and trauma-informed services and developing partnerships between homelessness and specialist women’s sector charities.

The Y currently offers housing and support to homeless and vulnerable young people aged 16 – 24. As part of their aim to broaden their skills and offer greater specialised support, the grant will enable them to deliver “Safe and Sound”, a project that will run in partnership with Leicester Women’s Aid, New Dawn New Day and MAST Outreach Services.

Safe and Sound project aims to provide specialist intervention for vulnerable young women to interrupt the cyclical nature of complex needs and poor physical, emotional and psychological outcomes. This will be done by focussing on individual need and providing a safe, nurturing, female-only environment. It will have an emphasis on positive mental health, safe and healthy relationships, recovery from gendered abuse and pre and post parenting work for young mothers. The Y will continue to support these young women for up to 6 months after leaving the service.

The grantees were chosen by a cross-sector, all-woman panel, including women with lived experience of homelessness.

Welcoming the grant, Paul Brown, Chief Executive of The Y said:
“The funding will enable The Y to deliver a specialist wrap around service to some of our most complex and marginalised young women. The project will ensure that young women gain the skills to understand domestic abuse in all its forms and the routes to a safe and healthy life.”

Homeless Link’s Assistant Director of Practice and Partnerships, Tasmin Maitland adds: “Women’s homelessness is a growing crisis. Despite this, women who are homeless or at risk of homelessness are one of the most marginalised groups in our society and the specialist support that they need is often lacking or non-existent.
We are delighted to be able to award The Y, Leicester, a grant that will have a real impact on the support that women experiencing homelessness in Leicester receive, and ultimately contribute to ending women’s homelessness for good.”