Quarriers gives homeless young couple happy family Christmas
Teenagers Craig and Jerri met whilst staying in emergency accommodation for homeless young people provided by Scottish care charity Quarriers. Craig spent the last 2 Christmases at Quarriers Stopover project, but this year he will be cooking the family dinner for partner Jerri and new baby Carla in their own home, the sort of Christmas Jerri has dreamt about all her life.
Craig and Jerri came back to Quarriers to show off their new baby joy this Christmas. And they were very grateful to the staff at Quarriers who helped them both deal with a number of difficult issues they had in their lives when they first came to Quarriers for help.
Jerri stayed at Stopover twice before she was ready to deal with her substance abuse. She says she couldn't have moved on and into her own tenancy without the support of Quarriers. Craig is full of praise for his "key worker" and the rest of the staff who helped him deal with the difficult issues in his life.
Homelessness exists throughout Scotland and is 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 Stopover Project, 189 Pollockshaws Road, Glasgow, is one of several projects which support young homeless people in the West of Scotland. Stopover provides emergency accommodation for young people referred by any agency, or by the young person themselves. The project has 14 fully furnished high quality individual rooms, where young people can stay for up to 10 weeks at a time. The primary aim of the project is to assess an individual's circumstances which may have led to homelessness and to devise a care plan to cover both short and long term accommodation goals.
A series of planning meetings is set up involving key agencies and individuals who can assist a young person to identify and access suitable accommodation and ongoing support where required. The project collaborates closely with a range of service providers, Social work, housing, mental health services and drug agencies.
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