‘On a cold cold night … ’

22.11.19: Now that we are well into November and heading fast towards Christmas, this week it has really felt like winter is here. It has been cold and rainy across most of the UK, and even dark by late afternoon when I am travelling home from work. This has made me reflect upon how vulnerable homeless young people are when they are living in insecure or inadequate housing, or even worse when they have no housing at all and are faced with the prospect of sleeping rough on the streets. Concerning, the UK is currently experiencing a significant rise (165% since 2010) in homelessness despite being one of the richest economies in the world (c.f. https://www.homeless.org.uk/facts/homelessness-in-numbers/rough-sleeping/rough-sleeping-our-analysis). Centrepoint have this week specifically highlighted the current plight of young people, noting that approximately 22,000 young people are facing homelessness this Christmas (c.f. https://centrepoint.org.uk/what-we-do/the-22-000/).

Yesterday evening, I had the pleasure of helping out at the #CentrepointSleepOut in London, an event where just over 1000 people from around 70 UK companies registered to ‘sleep out’ in the Olympic Park to raise valuable funds to enable the charity to continue their work to address youth homelessness (see: https://www.sleepout.org.uk). There have also been ‘sleep outs’ in Sunderland, Bradford and Manchester this month, and I want to thank everyone who was involved in making these events such a success including Centrepoint’s own extremely hard working Fundraising and Events Team! Last night it was dark, cold, and towards the end of the evening it also started raining, which meant even multiple layers left me shivering at times! Whilst this didn’t dampen the spirits of those who attended, and who were passionate about supporting the crucial work of Centrepoint, I was very relieved to be going home at the end of the evening to my warm secure home and bed! It really highlighted to me how vulnerable young people are when faced with the inclement British weather as well as all the other risks and challenges that they face sleeping rough, particularly if female as noted this week by the Evening Standard Homelessness Campaign (c.f. https://www.standard.co.uk/homeless-fund/the-homeless-fund-join-our-campaign-to-beat-homelessness-within-two-years-a4291676.html).

So what has this all got to do with Psychologically Informed Environments (PIE)? In the PIE Good Practice Guide (Keats et al, 2012), it is argued that ‘developing and managing the social [physical] environment is central to developing a psychologically informed service’ Thoughtful design, preferably with service user input … can result in useful changes in the way a building is used, and how it is valued by staff and clients’ (p.17) (c.f. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/340022/1/Good%2520practice%2520guide%2520-%2520%2520Psychologically%2520informed%2520services%2520for%2520homeless%2520people%2520.pdf). Moreover, it is noted that this ‘doesn’t have to involve large capital works — small and inexpensive changes can work equally well. Whether a building is redeveloped or redecorated, it can signal that there is a changed approach to the service, which is the key message for staff and clients’. Hence, PIE is arguing that services for homeless young people are more than just a ‘roof over their head’, they need to feel like ‘home’ and be that secure base (c.f. Attachment Theory; Bowlby, 1967) from which a young person can move away from homelessness and reach their potential. One of the key questions that I think it is always helpful to ask when thinking about whether a homeless service is meeting this challenge is ‘could I live there or would I want my son/daughter/relative living there?’

When I first began work at Centrepoint, just over 6 months ago, and began visiting our services, I was asked about what changes I thought we should make to the physical environments in light of PIE. However, I believed, as per PIE, that the ideas for such changes should come from the staff and young people that are directly working and living in the spaces. As a consequence, we have had an ‘PIE Physical Environment Ideas Application’ process open since our PIE launch last month, and this week I began to review and discuss the ideas co-produced by our Service Managers, Housing and Support staff and their young people. These have ranged in scope, reflecting the different needs of our different services but it has been really exciting to read about the ideas. I have also begun to work with other key individuals in the organisation to put in place the steps needed to make these ideas into reality including considering how we can work with our corporate or housing partners, as well as utilising our own resources including our amazing volunteers. I am also keen to consider how we can use this process as an opportunity to give the young people in services new skills and opportunities (e.g. by taking our Arts Engagement Offer to young people into our services by working with local artists to create art to decorate spaces for the young people by the young people).

Creating a physical environment for a homeless young person to feel both physically safe (i.e. ‘off the streets’) as well as psychologically safe (i.e. ‘a home’) is crucial. Just getting a young person a place to stay doesn’t necessarily mean that it is ‘home’. Many of our young people have a history within the care system, which means they may have not truly experienced what it means to ‘be home’. Moreover, a good physical environment isn’t just about walls, a roof or a bed, but it also considers noise and acoustics (including the need for confidential spaces), light, outside green or natural spaces, decoration, colours, materials and furniture, all of which combine to create a non-intuitional setting that is safe and welcoming and which facilitates a culture of relationship building as well as health and well-being. The young people that present to Centrepoint services deserve that opportunity to have a ‘home’, to have that ‘safe space’ to move away from the challenges of their past that led to their homelessness, or risk of homelessness. As our ‘PIEineers’ group of young people advising me on all aspects of PIE within Centrepoint argued in our last meeting; “when we are in Centrepoint we want to feel like we belong, and we are ‘home’”.

Having an inspiring and aspirational physical space also has a significant psychological impact, by building our confidence and self-esteem, and enabling us to feel like we are of worth. These are critical foundations for future success in the wider world by building resilience and hope for the future, so that whatever our experiences have been previously, we have the aspiration to #changethestory. Last night at the Centrepoint ‘Sleepout’ event, I was really moved by some of our ex-Centrepoint young people who spoke very eloquently about how their lives had been transformed by the opportunities that the charity had provided for them (c.f. https://twitter.com/centrepointuk/status/1197613091023921154). And whilst the ‘roof over their head’ or the physical environment that Centrepoint provided was only one aspect of this, it was the first and important step on that journey and therefore it is important that we continue to get this right for the vulnerable homeless young people that need our help.