Speaker Faye Wilson from Centrepoint

Faye had been to speak to us before when she was the fund raiser for the Children's Air Ambulance.
She moved three week ago to Centrepoint which has recently been awarded a contract by Bradford Council to pull together all the work done in the city to help homeless young people. This was because of the high success rate that the charity has had in London where 70% of those helped have been re-integrated into society and work or education.
The charity has taken over the 5 charities that previously undertook this work in Bradford including "Bradford Foyer" which Blaize have helped for many years.
Faye also told us that the long time chief executive of Bradford Foyer Rosemary Lawrence had died in May shortly after Centrepoint took over.
Faye went on to explain the 4 stage plan that Centrepoint uses for getting young people rehabilitated into society in Bradford. At the outset each young person is allocated a Key Worker who stays with them as their mentor throughout all 4 stages: -
Stage 1
There are 20 beds at hostels in Heaton and Shipley where young people can stay for up to 3 month. This gets them off the street and allows them to start to settle down.
Stage 2
This when the young people go to Bradford Foyer which has 52 beds. Here the Centrepoint staff work with them on a long term basis giving them learning and health support. They stay here for up to 6 month .
Stage 3
The youngsters then go into dispersed accommodation. This comprises of 6 supported housing units where Centrepoint staff are only available 9am to 4pm. Outside that time the residents have to manage their own affairs.
Stage 4
This is where the young people move into their own tenancy but are still supported by their Key Worker.

Faye then gave some statistics relating to Bradford: -
Currently 292 homeless
8 to 10 new referrals per day
Breakdown of referrals