Quarriers James Shields Project
15th December 2004
Homelessness exists throughout Scotland and is widely recognised as one of society's major problems, and one of the most extreme forms of social exclusion.
Quarriers recognises that many young people, aged 16 - 25, are homeless because they have no alternative. When homelessness is combined with unemployment and poverty, young people don't see a way out of their situation, because they lack the support systems and knowledge to combat all three issues.
Quarriers is providing services to vulnerable young people who are living in Glasgow, "on the streets" offering assistance to help reduce the risks they face, to help them find suitable accommodation and other forms of support.
Quarriers James Shields Project is a partnership between Glasgow City Housing and Quarriers. It offers a range of services to young men and women aged between 17 and25. . Up to 37 people can be accommodated at any one time in comfortable bedsits, and they can choose to stay for up to 2 years.
Referrals to James Shields Project can be made by any agency. The project aims to equip young people with the necessary skills and confidence that will enable them to move on to independent living, in a manner which will ensure their ability to maintain it. Help is on hand from staff to assist with budgetary and cooking skills, assistance with personal difficulties, advice and support, especially in the area of employment development. The project collaborates closely with a range of service providers, including Social Work, Housing, Mental Health Services, and Drug Agencies.
Fiona Nicolson - some background notes
Fiona Nicolson is project manager at James Shield Project. She has been with Quarriers for 8 years and loves it. She came in from nursing and trained in social work with Quarriers, starting in the childrens units at Quarriers Village, worked in the disability sector, then launched a new project in North Ayrshire before becoming project manager at JS.
She believes it's important to focus on what the young person wants for themself, for their own future. The people who come in to James Shields project have multiple and complex needs. They are referred in, and come for an interview - information is gathered about them, before they are offered a place here. "Our main remit is to generate stability in a person here. Young people are the only ones who know the answers. If you give them information and choices, and support them through making these choices, they have a great future. We don't look back at what they have done, we look forwards. We give them permission to make decisions for themselves.
Our work is solution focussed. When they arrive with us, often they suffer from lack of privacy about their lives. There are many authorities who know everything about them, and they are used to having their mistakes held up against them. They face the same issues as everyone else, alcohol choices, unemployment. With homelessness the public just see the issues, they don't see the person at the centre of these issues. We look at the person, the person is very very important."
If they are not staying at James Shields, the other options in Glasgow are larger adult hostels which don't specialise in young people, bed and breakfast accommodation paid for by benefits, or sleeping on a friend's sofa. Fiona Nicolson believes that hidden homelessness is on the increase, people sleeping on friends sofas, whose numbers are not counted by the authorities.
When William Quarrier founded Quarriers, he could see children living rough on the streets of Glasgow and he wanted to give them a better life. They had no one to care for them. The situation today with homelessness is the same. These young people cared for in James Shields project have no one else who cares about them.
What Fiona has identified is that these homeless youngsters have often never been valued, at home, in society - here they are usually a bit surprised to be given choices, and asked to make decisions for themselves. The young people treat the project with respect, and it is perhaps surprisingly beautifully decorated and furnished. Quarriers believes it' important to treat these people with the same respect as anyone else, and that's obvious when you visit any of their projects.
"Success" for Fiona is "irrelevant". It's different things for different people. If Quarriers can assist a young person to maintain their accommodation for 10 weeks instead of 2 days, that might be success. Success should be measured by the individual not the worker."
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