Homeless Action

Who we are

Homeless Action is a registered homeless charity established in 1997 for the provision of accommodaton and support to single, vulnerable clients who lead chaotic lives.

In Blackpool we have three hostels (62 bed spaces) and 43 self-contained semi supported move-on units, spread over 9 sites. We also operate our Community Cafe & Hub: The Cafe@264.

In Sunderland we operate a 26 bed homeless hostel and 40 self-contained semi supported move on flats.

Homeless Action is committed to treating individuals with dignity and respect and is determined to offer the opportunity and the support necessary to encourage and to enable personal growth and self-development, regardless of gender; marital status; sexual orientation; ethnic origin; religious belief; disability; age or political allegiance.

In order to keep our accommodation and shops across Blackpool and Sunderland adequately staffed, 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year, we employ over 50 people, including using a loyal pool of enthusiastic volunteers. Each member of staff contributes their skills and experience to help us provide a high quality, innovative accommodation based service that seeks to meet the needs of the homeless men and women we support.

Our team aims to increase self-esteem, improve motivation and raise levels of confidence by the meeting and overcoming of challenging situations. These aims are achieved by offering practical support, advice, assistance, advocacy, representation and counselling. The team works with a variety of clients with a number of issues, such as drug/alcohol dependence, mental health issues, learning difficulties and ex-offenders.

We also believe it is important to continue the improvement of not only our services but our staff. We are dedicated to providing the appropriate training and support for each employee and volunteer, which will enable them to develop professionally and also gain job satisfaction from their role. Both our staff and volunteers are offered a range of learning opportunities, from NVQ's in Health and Social Care, Food Hygiene, Business Administration and IT, to both internal and external training courses dealing with drugs, alcohol and mental health issues

Our culture and values

Homeless Action is a registered homeless charity that was established to relieve the poverty faced by vulnerable individuals in the Blackpool and Sunderland area. The organisation will offer accommodation, support, advice, advocacy, training and education to those in need and will endeavour to provide such services in a non-discriminatory way, whilst building relationships with communities and the wider public, with the aim of increasing the understanding of homelessness and promoting empathy towards the people who experience it.

The aim of the organisation is to empower homeless individuals to develop the necessary skills, to help them recover, to prevent them from becoming homeless and to enable them to move on and live a more indpendent life.

Equality, diversity and inclusion policy

Homeless Action's Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Policy aims are as follows:

·        Provide equal opportunities for our employees; job applicants; volunteers and service users

·        Value and respect diversity by acknowledging and celebrating differences

·        Ensure that all staff, Trustees, volunteers, member and non-member organisations individuals and service users with whom HA has contact will be treated fairly and in an unbiased way.

·        Provide equal access to HA services for service users

·        Develop an approach to equality that is integrated into our activities, working practices and conditions.

·        Develop a culture within the organisation with equality and accessibility at the core of the organisations work.

·        Develop effective monitoring procedures and analyse the information obtained to provide a basis for elimination of direct and indirect discrimination and promotion of equality of opportunity.

·        Identify and remove any discriminatory practice, policy or procedure which might hinder the progress of equality and replace these with effective measures which promote good equality practices.

·        Develop effective consultation and communication structures to ensure that the views of staff and service users are taken into account.

·        Create opportunities for representatives from all services to participate in the development and reviewing process of the organisation.

·        Ensure, where necessary, translation and interpretation services are made available, including the provision of relevant documents in accessible formats such as large print, audio tape and brail

·        Endeavour to make any reasonable adjustments to the physical features of its premises to overcome any physical barriers to access