A reflective response from one of the ‘PIEineers’, published here with permission:

I recently met Dr Helen Miles at the Centrepoint Bradford service in relation to creating a PIE involvement group where me, and three service users (past and present) came together to not only discuss what PIE is, but with our lived experiences help change and develop ideas for future action to help improve experiences of the services for future and current residents.

I felt humbled and privileged to be part of such a positive and thought provoking collaboration, with my passion for youth homeless right in the heart of it. From my past experience of being in a hostel setting and also a semi independent flat, it became very clear that if the place you are in is less clinical, comfortable and like a home — the physical environment, then you feel happier, healthier and more likely to accept and motivate change in your own life in moving forward. This is absolutely crucial as, from my experience, previous places that were bleak, ill fitted and unclean made me unmotivated, angry and felt like ‘I don’t deserve any better’. You are stuck again in a fragmented cycle of depression and not wanting to connect or trust others. Ideas we spoke about such as, possibly implementing a selection of soft furnishings or an option to paint your room if you were staying longer term, I think would massively impact the progression and happiness of the young person — to reinstate, they are a person, with wants and hopes and likes and dislikes, we aren’t an alien group of people, but we have become trapped in poverty homelessness and distress. Simple and often overlooked things like having choices in the property can make huge and distinct positive changes.

I am really looking forward to our next meeting and feel like it is a group of bright and stimulating people all wanting to be pioneering (haha) for the future of our youth.

Catherine Geddes

22.08.2019