Funding? – Yes Please Funding is required for: Housing Management Support Worker £90,000 3 year post The Emma Project provides 58 units of housing for homeless people and 3 houses for families who find themselves homeless. All of our service users are with us for a reason……they have no where else to live! Many live chaotic and hectic lifestyles, they have issues ranging from domestic abuse, drug and/or alcohol misuse problems, self harm, low self esteem, depression and mental health problems. Most of them suffer from an array of uses not just one. They all require support from our Housing Management Team. At present there are 5 staff managing the properties, providing maintenance, cleaning and management support. We recognise the need to employ a support worker to assist our service users to make the most out of their lives and to move on to bigger and better things. We hope to employ our support worker in the next month however we require funding for the post. 2 Night Shift/Security Officer £75,000 3 year post Our staff give over and above what is required from them, they all work with the clients best interests at heart and with a true charity spirit. We had to employ one night shift security worker to ensure the longevity of our project as we were receiving a number of neighbour complaints from a part of town where we have a high density of housing. We are able to claim a small proportion of this wage from Housing Benefit but need funding to cover the remainder of this posts wage plus another worker. We have worked extremely hard with the police, community support officer and various different agencies to resolve this problem. We now need to ensure it does not happen again as this would effect our ability to provide adequate any housing in future. Young Persons Support Worker £90,000 3 year post Sadly, the majority of our client base are young people aged between 16 and 25 years. We aim to house them in the most appropriate ways. In a lot of cases we move young people into their own flats with the assistance of other housing providers to steer them away from influences they may not be able to resist such as drugs and alcohol. They are also at serious risk of exploitation due to their vulnerable age and in a lot of cases immaturity. In these cases we provide Tenancy Related Floating Support. We work closely with these service users to give them the best possible chance at success and to promote education and employment. At present we employ a part time support worker for this client group, however funding expires in December 2007. Alcohol Support Worker £90,000 3 year post There is a huge gap in Darlington based services, and I suspect across the country, when it comes to support for people who have alcohol misuse issues. We already have a managed house for 6 service users aiming to reduce their alcohol intake. We require funding for a fully trained support worker to assist in this area. They would not only work with these residents but anyone referred to us in the Darlington area. Alcohol ruins lives and is often a factor in relationship breakdown. By contributing to this work you are not only impacting on individuals lives but their families and on a wider scale Health and Emergency Services. For example emergency services call outs would be reduced. An ambulance would not have to be called so often to pick up a drunk who fell and cracked his head open on the curb, or more likely reduce the number of police call outs to violent attacks resulting from too much alcohol consumption. The number of assaults on hospital staff would reduce. The effects are far reaching. If early intervention with alcohol issues are tackled we could empower clients to live independent lives with expectations such as work. Family and Parents Support Worker £90,000 3 year post The government are recognising the need for work with families who cannot manage. We have begun to work with Darlington Borough Council’s Family Intervention Team. We want funding for a support worker to assist families remain one unit and to carry out work with them that gives them a better chance with their futures. At present we work with adults (over 16s). However two of our staff members are trained teachers, one of whom has expressed an interest in working with children as well as their parents. The best approach is to work with the family as a whole, not parts of the family. Resolving issues at an early age will impact on the rest of the community by decreasing the likelihood that the young person will turn to crime. Fundraiser £90,000 3 year post One thing that would ensure longevity in funding for our projects and the ability for us to respond quickly to changing needs in the Darlington area, is a permanent fundraiser. At present it is the managers responsibility to bid for funding and fill in fundraising applications. This is a very time consuming job and is ‘fit in’ to everyday case loads. I am sure you can appreciate that working with chaotic people has the impact that in a lot of cases we are responding to situations not always planning for them. This means that priorities are constantly shifting. A fundraiser would take the strain off and would benefit the entire organisation. We already have networks and links in place to set up much of this work we just require the funding. Service User Involvement £10,000 Our organisation is striving to encourage service user involvement in as many different ways as we can and at different levels within the 700 Club. We have two service users on our Committee and we provide activities such as cookery classes, walking groups and monthly social/advice sessions. We are also lucky enough to work with volunteers who offer expertise, for example an insolvency practitioner. We view our service users holistically and want to be an all inclusive provider. It would be great if we could provide our service users with other activities that cost money! We would like to give children who we support a Christmas Party with Christmas Gifts, day trips to places of interest, rewards, funding higher education and further education courses.