Our aim is to support people to live independently, this is a vital part of fulfilling our purpose; to live in a world where no one is homeless.
Many of our residents come to us from a life filled with chaos and trauma, they have often just started or completed a community treatment programme or been released from prison. They are more likely to stay on track and regain their independence if they have a roof over their head and some stability and structure, enabling them to move from a chaotic to a calm life.
Our model offers them this safe place (which is far more than just a roof over their head), a place where they can start to rebuild their life (LIVE), start to feel good about themselves, build meaningful connections with other people (CONNECT), and do something that is valued by themselves and their community (DO).
Live – start to live well
People come to our houses often physically and emotionally bankrupt, and our first step is to help build them back up again. Our residents decide to live, and to live well. Abstinence plays a massive part in being able to achieve this, they need to be able to stay on track and maintain a focus. Other residents in the houses and our experienced team all contribute to helping and supporting residents to attend group work and mutual aid sessions, stay abstinent and keep focussed. We can then start to rebuild lives by helping people develop the basic day-to-day living skills such as cleaning, budgeting and self-care.
Our residents then start to transition from a life of chaos and confusion to stability and structure through gradual behavioural and psychological change.
We have a structured day in our houses, at 10am everyone gathers to connect with one another. Three times a week a recovery coach runs a group to help build personal, community and social capital and support residents to develop a toolkit they can use to overcome active addiction and rebuild their life. Therapeutic group work includes our bespoke behavioural change programme, inspired by a CBT approach called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), where we can support people to consider their values and goals in life and make steps towards achieving these. We also run relapse prevention, health and wellbeing and community building sessions.
The menu of group work sessions is specifically designed to enable people to live a happy and healthy life and is tailored to their individual needs.
To improve physical health and we have partners such as BBV nurses that visit and advise residents with Hep C testing and treatment, harm minimisation techniques to keep themselves safe in many different scenarios and advice for sexual health and STIs.
To improve our residents’ mental health we recently had a powerful group work session which had a big impact. It was centred around building self-worth through collecting positive affirmations about themselves. The kinder they can be to themselves the more they will be able to achieve sustainable behavioural change, retain an abstinent lifestyle and stay focussed on their goals. The group sessions focus on ‘what’s strong’ within a person, as opposed to ‘what’s wrong’, by challenging the negative inner critic with compassionate self-talk. This begins a process of recognising and focusing on their strengths rather than their weaknesses, they start feel good about themselves and how other people perceive them. A selection of the positive affirmations collected during this group session are shown in the images below.
Staying abstinent is incredibly challenging for most people. Aside from the structured days and regular group sessions we also have staff available 24/7, so there’s always someone available for one-to-one conversations – either in person or on the end of the phone. This helps residents stay on track when they feel like they could relapse, need help with overcoming a trigger or craving, or simply need to talk to someone. We have staff available to help them attend mutual aid groups such as NA, AA, CA and Smart Recovery meetings. A few members of staff or volunteers are willing to take them to a meeting outside of working hours.
All our efforts are centred around helping our residents build themselves back up, recognising their own strengths and feeling good about themselves and their future. We all want to help them to live their best life.
Connect – grow meaningful relationships
Many residents have lost social connections; they’ve lost their home, job and family. By giving them a home, somewhere safe to live, it solves that problem. Community and building relationships means everything in our houses.
By living with one another our residents learn from each other. They have a strong sense of community and mutual responsibility for each other, naturally supporting each other as and when needed. We genuinely care about everyone that lives in our houses, there is no rush for people to leave, they can stay as long as they need to, our longest resident has been with us for 10 months. It’s motivating for new residents to listen to stories and advice from others who have been here a while, they have someone to learn from that has a direct experience of similar circumstances.
Many of our residents organise their own social activities, more than half have signed up to the local gym and they work-out together, they also go fishing, play pool together and go on bike rides. This mutual respect forges strong, meaningful and long-lasting connections between our residents that often transcends into their lives after having left.
“The word ‘connect’ to me means a connection to life, a second chance at life after nearly three decades of heroin addiction. Being given the chance to lead a life where I look after my health I’m enjoying opportunities I’m fortunate to enjoy sober for the first time in nearly three decades. For that I’ll be eternally grateful. Thankyou!”
Do – learn and achieve
Having something to do, a goal to strive for, a structured path to improve one’s life, all help to keep people on track. To see the benefits in making one’s own life richer, giving back into the community and helping other people stay on track gives our residents hope for the future.
We offer employment services that consist of training for interview techniques, CV writing and volunteering opportunities which can lead to employment. We also work with other organisations who deliver confidence building group workshops with residents within our houses. We value lived-experience and are always enthusiastic to give people, who are very familiar with Supporting Lives and Charter, the chance to volunteer and possibly work for us as their journey progresses.
“I was in a state of depression and homeless. I contacted the service and was housed immediately. They recognised I was serious about my sobriety, my recovery and quickly upgraded me to tier 3 accommodation. I’ve been able to participate in groups alongside staff members which allowed me to share my experience of the service and my recovery, helping both myself and the other lads. I also found the employment agencies and NHS visits a real asset to my experience. I find all the staff helpful and feel they genuinely care about my welfare and wellbeing on a personal level.”
A vibrant culture of change
Our unique recovery academy model combines safe housing with substance use aftercare, physical and mental health support, mutual aid, training, employment and volunteering opportunities. Our model is divided into 3 parts but in reality these often intertwine with one another in different combinations depending on the individual’s recovery journey.
We encourage people to build on their strengths and forge a future that learns from the past but leaves it behind. We want to help people create their own sustainable and long-lasting behaviour change patterns that can be passed down through future generations and put an end to homelessness.
If you are interested in how we work and would like to make a referral, or need more information, please contact us directly for an initial conversation.
A massive thank you to the residents at Charter Recovery House for contributing to the content of this blog post.
