Can your spare room save a vulnerable young person in Leeds from spending the night on the street?
The Nightstop project, run by Barnardos, was started in the city in 1987 and has helped thousands of young people avoid the perils of spending the night alone with no roof over their head.
Nightstop tackles youth homelessness by providing emergency overnight accommodation. Volunteer hosts, who are ordinary members of the community, open their homes to young people giving them somewhere safe to sleep.
Communities and charities run Nightstops in more than 25 locations around the UK but in Leeds volunteers are urgently needed.
The volunteers can be anyone from a single person, to a member of a large family – the only requirement is to have a spare room and a caring attitude towards young people.
Thorough checks and training are carried out on each volunteer to make sure they are able to help. Once accepted they are also given help to cover the costs of things like food and bedding.
How does it work?
A young person will contact Nightstop through a partner agency. Following a background check and risk assessment, if the person is deemed low need then a trained volunteer host is given information about them and asked if they want to volunteer that evening.
The Nightstop service will talk to the guest about what they should expect from the host, Nightstop rules and how they will get there.
The guest is offered an evening meal, breakfast, a shower and use of the washing machine.
The Nightstop service will contact the guest in the morning to check that everything is ok. There is a 24 hour on-call service for the host should there be any problems out of hours.
The guest then leaves the next morning at an agreed time.
Volunteers
Volunteers with a spare bedroom provide the guest with a safe place to stay, a hot meal and the opportunity to wash, they also provide a listening ear to make the guest feel comfortable and secure.
Safety is paramount and the thorough referral process enables young people who are low risk to be placed securely.
Find out more
If you can help please go to www.depaul.org.uk/nightstop to find out more or email [email protected]