Understanding Homelessness a Creative Toolkit
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
UNDERSTANDING HOMELESSNESS A CREATIVE TOOLKIT 1 WELCOME CONTENTS HOMELESSNESS IS AN URGENT SOCIAL ISSUE THAT DESERVES OUR ATTENTION What is homelessness? 3 This pack – aimed at teachers, youth groups, and other voluntary organisations Case study 4 working with people aged 14 and above – is designed to help you help others The context of 5 approach the complex issues around homelessness. homelessness The pack contains information, things to discuss weather in order to get the key to their own home. Along The broader context 7 and a range of exercises to develop written, visual the way there are ‘moments of pause’ when players are of housing and drama-based responses that could be used invited to share their views and offer advice on ways for Active Citizenship, Tutor Time, PSHE and within forward for those experiencing homelessness or for those The importance of mental 8 the curriculum. who want to help. The game encourages collaboration as, health & safety from harm although the objective is to get the key to your own home, This pack is based on a pilot board game we developed the requirements to win as a single player are higher than Being part of a social fabric 10 called ‘Homeless Monopoly’, which was created as those to win working in collaboration with another player part of a collaboration between Coventry University, with whom one can house-share. Difficult personal 12 CU Coventry and the University of Warwick, working in circumstances partnership with Coventry Cyrenians. The game is based This pack is based on the game - but stands equally well on its own. It looks at the wider context of homelessness, The Big Issue 14 on ‘real life’ experiences of homelessness with its aim being for players to gain an appreciation of the many the triggers that can lead to homelessness, the support that is available for those experiencing or at risk of Homeless people and 15 different routes into and out of homelessness and of the homelessness, and different social and cultural responses creativity: making various support agencies that are available to help people to homelessness. and participating faced with these circumstances. The game aims to raise awareness and encourage empathy in young people. Cultural representations of 16 We hope you enjoy using this pack and find useful homelessness: who is During the game, for up to eight players aged 14+, suggestions for ways to explore sensitive themes speaking for whom? players try to gather resources, collect Coins and make with your group. it through real-world trials and tribulations such as Professor Nadine Holdsworth ‘Homeless Monopoly’: 18 bereavement, addiction, difficult relationships and severe Dr Jackie Calderwood Our game exploring homelessness CAUTION: When using this pack with a group of people, please be aware that some within your group Further information and 20 may have had experience of, or be experiencing, homelessness - or be heading towards or out of some support organisations of the difficult situations that arise in this pack.Many of the exercises and themes in this pack will need handling with sensitivity and may trigger unexpected responses from your group. Please be prepared with information and courses of action in anticipation of such situations, particularly where we flag up a Trigger Warning. 2 NEXT THERE’S NO WHAT IS PLACE LIKE HOME DRAMA EXERCISE Age 14+ HOMELESSNESS? 3-5 people Aim: Use drama to appreciate the 25 min FORTUNES CAN CHANGE IN AN INSTANT difference between a house and home There’s no place like home. Home is where the heart is. Resources required: Print out of estate agent listings for various houses Home sweet home. But what is ‘home’ exactly? Is it always a positive place? And what have you lost if you are homeless? • Teacher / group leader distributes one of the two tasks below to each small group. The groups do NOT know that there are Legally, having a ‘home’ means that there is some People can be considered homeless because they two sorts of task. permanence to the place you live; you don’t need are living in poor or unsafe conditions, which might a) Make a live ‘through the keyhole’ to own it, and it doesn’t have to be a house - it could affect their health, also if they are living separated scene based on an estate agent’s be a mobile home or boat – but you need to live from their family because they don’t have a suitable advert for a house, as provided. Show there regularly. place to live together. what you like about the house? How is it furnished? Who might live there? When we talk about home, we are often talking According to Invisible People there are three sorts of Who might visit there? What is the about a concept rather than a geographical location. homeless people recognised in the UK. atmosphere like? What sort of events Home is, to many people, the place they feel most • Rough sleepers - the most visible and vulnerable might happen there? comfortable; where they feel safe and warm and people experiencing homelessness. b ) Make a live ‘through the keyhole’ scene sheltered by those who love them. • The hidden homeless - people who can live for one of your own homes. Show inside and off the streets, but don’t have their own what you like about the home. How is Of course that isn’t everyone’s experience of their residence; they might ‘sofa surf’, live with friends it furnished? What is in it? Who lives home, and often homes ‘break-up’ or people move or in hotels, hostels, bed and breakfasts, and other there? Who visits there? What is the out and homes can be places where dangerous and types of non-permanent housing. atmosphere like? What sort of events abusive behaviour occurs. Home can become merely • The statutory homeless - those who are eligible have happened there? a roof over your head, rather than an emotional for assistance from their local authority for a variety • Note to groups: You don’t have to show shelter. Some people might rely on friends or a of reasons. every room, just create an overall feel for hostel / hotel to accommodate them on a temporary the house or home. basis; some people may not have friends to rely on, Aside from the structural issues of a housing • Share the ‘through the keyhole’ dramas or money to pay for accommodation. system, which we will explore further on P7, there with the larger group. are also personal circumstances that might lead to According to Shelter, one of the UK’s leading • Afterwards, consider whether there homelessness and we will explore some of these charities dealing with homelessness, the definition were differences in the way groups later in the pack e.g. mental health on P8; difficulties of homelessness means not having a home. You are described their places? What do in communicating on P10; and domestic violence homeless if you have nowhere to stay and are living you think is the difference between and substance abuse on P12. These structural and on the streets, but you can be homeless even if you a house and a home? personal circumstances intersect to amplify the risk. have a roof over your head. 3 CONTENTS NEXT I HAD TO AVOID A FORCED MARRIAGE CASE STUDY “I DIDN’T WANT A LIFE WHERE I HAD NO CHOICE” I came to Britain as an overseas I didn’t want a life where I had no choice so I felt I had This was a scary and exhausting period of my life but I undergraduate student from to stay in the UK and not return to my home in Kenya. still managed to visit a department store sometimes, to Initially I stayed with a friend and her family while I get cleaned up, spraying on some perfume and putting Kenya, the land of the Big Five claimed asylum. We would cook together, go cycling, on my bright pink lipstick. and really good weather. and take road trips to Somerset. Sadly, she went through a relationship breakdown (divorce) which meant that I I went to a few places to seek shelter but got turned I had the most amazing time as a student could no longer live with her and her family. away because I had no recourse to public funds but but in my third year my father told me Cyrenians housed me out of good will and supported he was going to marry me off to a soldier As an asylum seeker I was not allowed to work or get me in securing my current accommodation. - a complete stranger. I tried to reason welfare support so I had no money to rent anywhere and with him, but he was very controlling and I ended up sofa-surfing with other friends, not knowing They also helped me find myself; I really wanted to help insisted that he would forcefully marry me where I would go from night to night, week to week. others in the way Cyrenians had helped me, so I started off as soon as I completed my studies. Some of my friends let me down so there were a few volunteering for them. I also campaign with various nights I ended up staying up in 24hr McDonald’s. other charities trying to empower and enhance the lives of people like myself, and I long for the day I can call Britain my permanent home. This is a genuine case study, provided by someone with lived experience of homelessness. Aspects of the story have been anonymised for their protection.