Tag: homelessness

Top marks for Dunedin’s Harbour hostel

Staff at the only hostel in the Capital run by a social landlord have been praised following a recent care services inspection. Leith’s Dunedin Harbour Hostel has been awarded ‘very good’ grades after an inspection by the Care Inspectorate.

Managed by Dunedin Canmore Housing Group, the hostel – the only hostel service delivered by a Housing Association in Edinburgh – scored highly for the quality of care and support it provides to homeless people. Dunedin Harbour Hostel provides short term support of up to 12 weeks. The service also provides medium term support, up to six months, in self contained flats within the hostel accommodation. At the time of our inspection 35 people were using the service.

Staff have various areas of expertise, including mental health, drugs, alcohol and counselling. The team provides housing advice, emotional and practical support and help with independent living skills. And they work closely with each person to identify and work towards their personal goals, promote healthy lifestyles and build skills for work.

The report said the Parliament Street-based hostel service has been creative in helping people access support, working with a range of services to build relationships with people in the hostel that can continue after their stay.

Dunedin Canmore’s Sheltered Housing Division also scored ‘very good’ in the inspection. The Sheltered Housing Division provides a housing support service to around 340 tenants living in nine sheltered housing complexes across Edinburgh. Tenants have self contained flats and each complex has a communal lounge, kitchen and laundry facilities.

The report said, “The sheltered housing managers we met were enthusiastic about their role and committed to supporting tenants to live as independently as possible. Sheltered housing tenants were happy with the support they received from their sheltered housing manager. They were viewed as friendly, approachable and helpful and the “extra” help they gave was very much appreciated.”

Housing Manager Rhona McAdam said: “I am delighted with the Very Good Grade from the Care Inspectorate. This reflects the hard work of all the staff in the service and their commitment to providing an excellent service to the tenants in sheltered housing. I am very pleased by the many positive comments which the tenants made about their sheltered managers to the Care Inspector. Our Care Inspector also offered us some useful suggestions on how we might further improve our service, which we are currently implementing.”

Dunedin Canmore

Dunedin Canmore kicks off Changing Lives campaign

A local housing association has launched a new campaign to help young people and homeless adults in Edinburgh break the cycle of unemployment and poverty – through sport.  Dunedin Canmore Housing Association and Street Soccer Scotland have joined forces in a bid to give hundreds of youngsters and excluded adults the confidence to move into employment or education through the Changing Lives campaign.

The Edinburgh-based social landlord says Changing Lives will help build the self confidence and motivation of youngsters, as well as homeless adults, by plugging existing gaps in employability services.

Kicking off the campaign, Dunedin announced it will be major sponsor of the Scottish Homeless World Cup Team. Dunedin will provide a £10,000 boost to support the team, trained and managed by Street Soccer Scotland, as they head to the prestigious annual tournament in Mexico this August.

Changing Lives is already delivering a raft of community projects, including personal development courses and healthy living events for communities around Edinburgh offering advice on mental health, sexual health, housing, employment and training.

Under the partnership Dunedin will provide specialist accredited training as part of Street Soccer Scotland personal development and training programmes – and plans to open up volunteering, training and job opportunities to people coming through Street Soccer Scotland programmes.

Gavin Edmonds, Community and Business Initiatives Officer at Dunedin Canmore said, “We are proud to launch the Changing Lives campaign with Street Soccer Scotland and excited to kick it off with our sponsorship of the Homeless World Cup team again this year. Ultimately the goal of all the projects we do as part of Changing Lives is to give people the self esteem and life skills to help them to make a better life.”

David Duke, Chief Executive of Street Soccer Scotland said, “At Street Soccer Scotland our motto is positive change through football. By working with Dunedin we will be able to have a bigger impact and change lives of more people. And thanks to their sponsorship we will be able to secure training for the Homeless World Cup team as they head to Mexico.”

Dunedin Canmore and Street Soccer Scotland are also bidding for funding to set up programmes throughout Edinburgh as part of Football Works which will be aimed at young people aged 14 – 19 who are deemed to be going into a negative destination when leaving school.

Changing Lives – a lifechanger for Peter

Peter Dante (pictured above) is 41 and lives in Leith.

He gets support from employability worker at Dunedin Canmore and says this has helped him to turn his life around. He has background in crime, addiction and homelessness.

Peter became team captain for the Salvation Army hostels tournament and went on to organise a mini tournament for hostels teams in Edinburgh in 2012. And last year he started volunteering at Street Soccer Scotland and went into rehabilitation. Now he is now doing a Street Soccer Plus programme, delivered as part of the Changing Lives partnership between Dunedin Canmore employability support and Street Soccer Scotland.

Peter is doing an HNC in Working in Communities at Jewel and Esk Valley College, coaching young people at Bathgate Academy, voluntary work with adult literacy project Glory and Dismay and has started an employment trial with the Marriot Hotel. Peter has also reconnected with his son and started rebuilding his relationship.