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Work in Schools
Who Does the Work? Being very rural in nature, Orkney does not have a very large voluntary sector. There are various organisations covering a wide variety of issues eg there is a CAB and a branch of Women’s Aid amongst others but there are not organisations which deal with homelessness specifically nor are there organisations who specialise in young people.
In light of this we work closely with organisations like Careers Scotland, Support Training and other educational bodies. There are youth workers throughout Orkney who work on a range of issues and various youth projects focusing on a number of aspects of life. Homelessness prevention work tends to focus on an issue rather than a particular group due largely to the small size of the population and its dispersal.
To provide some background information, there are 6 secondary schools. Two of these are in the main towns of Kirkwall and Stromness (on the mainland of Orkney) and between them supply the mainland of Orkney and some of the outer islands. The other four are junior highs and are situated on the outer islands with larger populations. A school hostel provides accommodation for those from the outer islands who attend school on the mainland.
Who Pays for It? The Council.
How is it delivered? The Council provides the Streets Ahead Guide to the local schools and makes these guides available to young people approaching the homelessness/housing advice service generally.
There is a group, led by young people where professionals from areas in which young people have expressed an interest, are invited to attend to provide information on their area of work. We have provided a member of staff to speak on housing issues generally.
In addition the local Domestic Abuse Forum arranged for a one woman play focussing on domestic abuse to come to Orkney and the play to be delivered to a range of professionals etc. This was also sent to local schools and agreements were reached with the schools for S4 and above to attend.
Who is Targeted? S4 and above usually.
What Resources Are Used? SCSHs Streets Ahead Guide is used. These are provided to the schools. In addition we hold a stock and we provide one to each young person who approaches us as homeless or for housing advice.
How long has work in this (or other) form been going on? Somewhere in the region of 18 months.
How is the work monitored / evaluated? N/A
Work Outwith Schools
Commentary In Orkney we are dealing with very small numbers and our preventative work is slanted towards the issues which represent a certain percentage of our homelessness presentations, many of these will cut across age brackets.
For instance, we are currently carrying out preventative work in relation to enforcing tenants rights in the private rented sector. The very nature of those who rent privately mean that a significant proportion would fall into the bracket of being under 25 years old. We also have projects focusing on drug and alcohol problems for instance and again a proportion of these are likely to be young people. Due to the size of our population we are in a position where it is difficult to specifically target young people in a meaningful sense given resource restrictions.
Agencies Involved
Orkney Council
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