Nudge, Nudge…wink, wink

Today “The House of Lords science and technology committee said ministers seemed to be mistaken in their use of what is known as the nudge theory.”  ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14187802 ) Nudge theory is the idea that changes are made to the social and physical environment without legislation that encourage (or discourage) specific behaviour. One example of this would [...]

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Where do homeless people come from

The Children’s Society yesterday reported on the numbers of pre-teen runaways increasing (link below) and the risks that these young people face once they have fled their home or care. The report noted that a child runs away from home every five minutes in the UK and one in three of these will go unreported. [...]

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What does Simon on the Streets actually do?

Jon, one of our support workers shares the experiences of a day ‘at the office’ in Huddersfield: As I was walking down to the Mission to meet Tim I bumped in to Julie who I have been doing some short term work with regarding her abusive relationship and domestic violence. She had blood on her [...]

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Square Pegs…

Our support worker in Bradford, Mat, who is new to us and quite new to our service user group is asking some great questions!  For instance yesterday he spent a few hours trying to support a guy to get some housing who had just been evicted from a hostel.  As always with our service users [...]

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Pixie’s Story of Life on the Streets of Leeds

If you would like to help Simon on the Streets support homeless people in Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield please check this link to make a donation or here if you would be interested in volunteering

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U-Turn Tom

For Tom to be able to eventually go to residential Rehab there were some strict conditions; He must show willing by attending structured day care at least 3 times a week, attend all testing appointments with DRR (a court order) and hopefully get negative urine tests, and to attend Probation monthly. Tom took the Bull [...]

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Positive Movement

I’ve worked with Terry for about 2 years now and for most of that time he’s been an entrenched rough sleeper. Terry was in care from an early age and soon resorted to crime – namely car theft and joy riding – to fill his time and stunt his boredom. The outcome of this was [...]

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First Steps

One of the individuals, Karen, who is on my case load had been impossible for me to engage with as I had never had the chance to meet her.  I had heard a lot about her from various agencies, all expressing a great deal of concern for her well being as she leads an extremely [...]

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Supporting the Unsupported

One of our service users has just been evicted from the hostel he was staying in. The main reason for this is that he is too ‘high risk’. This is because of his many suicide attempts – deliberate or accidental he’s not really sure himself. This man is problematic; his alcohol use means he is [...]

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Simon on the Streets at Work

I started working with the Simon on the Streets Community in April of this year. As a new worker your first weeks consist of trawling around town and getting your face known. The most visible group of people we work with wear fluorescent orange vests and sell the big issue. Through my daily chats with [...]

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