We want you to make the most of your time at the YMCA, so a named member of staff will be your main point of contact to work alongside you. That’s your Housing Coach! You can arrange to meet with your Housing Coach for support as often as you need but there are some important milestones for you to be aware of…
Within 2 days of you moving in, your Housing Coach will meet with you to go through your YMCA Induction. This checks you have all the basics covered like your housing benefit claim, enough food/toiletries and that you know your way around the building as well as the house rules.
Then within 5 days of you moving in, your Housing Coach will meet with you again to complete your personal profile, which is all about getting to know you, your strengths and what your life goals are. Within 16 days we will have completed a personal plan. This plan will be used to see how we can help you reach your life goals. Things that we will coach you to develop:
- Economic Wellbeing e.g. benefits, debts, employment
- Enjoy and Achieve e.g. apprenticeships, volunteering, hobbies, relationships
- Be Healthy e.g. physical fitness, mental health, alcohol and other substances
- Staying Safe e.g. anti-social behaviour, probation, social services, safeguarding
- Life Skills and Tenancy Management e.g. timekeeping, budgeting, housekeeping, personal hygiene, cooking and tenancy management
Alongside this, your Housing Coach will always have in mind that this temporary accommodation is the stepping stone to helping you move out into suitable, long term accommodation. We will support you with registering on Cheshire HomeChoice, looking for private lets or moving to other supported accommodation as necessary.
Every 8 weeks after this we will review your plan and look back at how your stay has been so far. This is your chance to see how far you’ve progressed and how we can continue to coach you going forward. It might be that your situation and your goals have changed so we will reflect this in the plan.
Besides all this, your Housing Coach can direct and support you in accessing other services such as:
- community drug and alcohol teams
- counselling
- debt advice services
- mental health services
- Youth Support Service (helps young people into further education, training or employment)
Any information that you share with your Housing Coach will be kept secure and only shared with other professionals on a “need to know basis”.
