Photo by Tom Parsons on Unsplash
Homelessness in the UK continues to rise. For every 10 people recorded rough sleeping in 2010, there are now 27. Recent street counts of rough sleepers suggest that on any one night there are almost 5,000 people sleeping rough in England – a quarter of these are in London alone.
This is just the tip of the iceberg because there are hundreds of thousands more ‘hidden homeless’ sleeping on sofas, staying in hostels, or moving from place to place at night and sleeping anywhere they can during the day.
By ourselves, perhaps the most we can do is help someone to survive another day. However, if we can work together, anything is possible. Perhaps if we work together, we can help those who are homeless today, and those on the brink of becoming homeless soon.
The Goal
At TIBCO, we want to facilitate a wide variety of services to help the homeless find their way to stable housing and meaningful employment. Our purpose is to help create lasting solutions to the injustice of homelessness using blockchain technology to collect information, track donations, and better organize efforts.
What it Means to Us
"Many people are reluctant to give [money] to the homeless, so it's really important to me to be able to find a way for people to feel confident that the help they give will make someone's life a little better. This project gives me hope that there is a better way." - Andy H.
"This for me personally is about doing the right thing, in this day and age as a society. People shouldn't have to live like this. We have to improve the quality of life—not just the quantity of life. I feel passionately that this can be addressed. Yes, it's a complex problem with many starting points which takes different routes and leads to different outcomes—but ultimately this is about being humane and wanting to contribute to society in a positive way. I know a lot of people feel the same way—and I know we can improve the quality of life and potentially one day eradicate homelessness, or at the very least, drastically reduce it and improve lives." - Darren C.
How It Works: The One Step Forward Initiative
Generally speaking, most of us are lucky enough in life that we don’t really understand what it is like for those in need. We have a support network of friends and family we can fall back on if we need help, be it financial help or just plain advice. Most of us can pick up the phone or message someone for help and receive free advice with no strings attached.
Most of us have seen or been approached by a homeless person. Sadly, we have all experienced instances where we have provided some support, only to find that person in the same situation day after day.
The One Step Forward initiative wants to take a different approach. It complements the monetary support given to those in need with the same type of network most of us are privileged to have. Those who find themselves on their own through circumstance will gain access to a network of people who are there to help. The goal of this project is to help as many people as possible by providing them with new hope and new direction—moving them "One Step Forward" to a better life.
The Five-Point-Plan
Innovate |
Cultivate |
Launch |
Adapt |
Expand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Leverage technology to build a digital platform to facilitate connections across all parties |
Create an idea, cultivate a solution and work towards the ideal architecture and MVP (minimum viable product) |
Launch prototype and pilot the MVP within two regions in London |
Feed information back from the pilot for continuous development and optimisation |
Accelerate and develop the app, expand to wider regions in UK & beyond |
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The platform will help Charities, Communities & Corporations come together and work towards the common goal of supporting individuals who are experiencing homelessness.
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The application will provide personalised services dependent on an individuals needs
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It will have services like housing, employment matching, skills training, donation management, domestic support, connections to groups & communities giving them personal support
Technology Partner
Technology Partner
An international award-winning design and technology consultancy and product developer, Keytree helps transform digital potential into business reality.
Keytree helps companies become leaner, faster, and more agile with our award-winning team of SAP experts and beautifully designed applications. The way we work sets us apart.
Charity Partners
Buses4Homeless
Buses4Homeless is a low-cost holistic solution to homelessness in the UK. We refurbish decommissioned buses into spaces for eating, sleeping, wellbeing, and learning in order to re-engage homeless people back into the community.
How can you get involved? Give one of the team a call on 020 7060 9410 or email partnerships@buses4homeless.org.
C4WS Homeless Project
C4WS Homeless Project is a Camden based charity supporting those experiencing homelessness. We run a winter night shelter for five months every year providing emergency accommodation to those with nowhere else to go. We then support them to access housing, employment and other welfare needs as they take the next steps forward with rebuilding their lives. Last year, 95% of those engaging with our services successfully gained move-on from the shelter.
We also run a Jobs Club, English Classes, Counselling, and other well-being services, a Mentoring and Befriending Programme, drop-in lunchtime Friday Club, Sunday Club leisure services and Home From Home—a hosting scheme.
Learn more at https://c4wshomelessproject.org/.
Hope Worldwide | Two Step Programme
The 'Two Step' programme provides a specialized housing service for people who are experiencing homelessness. We are excited about this initiative because it can help connect people who are currently homeless with those who are willing and able to help.
In addition to helping people find a home, we also want to empower people like Brett and Curtis to achieve goals like completing training, getting work experience and finding employment.
The first step is to listen to someone’s story and assess how we can help; the second step is to help them find suitable accommodation. We accept referrals from many organisations and have been able to house over 260 people a year for the last two years.
For more information about how we work and how you could help personally see https://www.twostep.org.uk/get-involved