Speaker Mollie Somerville - Nightstop Bradford

Nightstop Bradford ((NSB) is affiliated to the national charity Depaul (https://www.depaul.org.uk/) and there are more than 30 individual Nightstops around the UK.

NSB started in 1993 and provides emergency accommodation for homeless young people 16-25 years old on a one night at a time basis in the homes of trained volunteers. The young people are referred by other agencies such as The Samaritans or Bradford Homeless Outreach Partnership Bradford. NSB also seeks to challenge youth homelessness by raising the issue with the general public and decision makers through Publicity and campaigning.

The charity is based at Culture Fusion on Thornton Road. Culture Fusion opened in 2011 in an old mill and is a joint venture between the YMCA and Bradford Council and other organisations, including the NHS, Bradford College and the University of Bradford. It provides youth facilities such as a dance studio, gym as well as some hostel accommodation.

The agency who refer the youth must be actively seeking longer term housing for the individual. They also fill out a Risk Assessment over phone establishing whether the person has a criminal record and if so what kind. Also whether they are the currently using drugs.

Once a person has been accepted they are either placed in a home of a volunteer or in one of 2 rooms at the Culture Fusion centre. Nightstop have 4 rooms there – 2 for youths and 2 for overnight hosts. 

The charity has 5 members of staff but is mainly reliant on volunteers of which there are three main types:

• Telephone Contact People who run the referral service

• Currently 10 hosts who provide emergency accommodation for the young people in their own homes.

• Currently 8 hosts who stay overnight at Culture Fusion.

Hosts tell NSB what days available. NSB arrange travel from agency to host. The young person arrives around 9:30pm and is told that they have to leave at 9am the next morning. They are given bus fare to go back to the agency that sent them. The host then goes back to NSB so that they can go back to Agency and tell them how they behaved. Hosts rarely hear about their guests afterwards.

The charity relies primarily on grants to cover their running costs which are mainly wages for the staff and rent. The most money comes from Bradford Council and lottery grants.