In our 30th year of operation, we intend to celebrate our Anniversary by embarking on a programme of fundraising, to provide opportunities for our service users which we are unable to fund through our normal resources. Our most ambitious event will be a challenge to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in October 2010, and will be undertaken by staff, service users and friends of the organisation, to raise the profile of SHAP and to benefit service users across the organisation.
SHAP exists to promote social justice, to combat poverty and to prevent
homelessness.
We aim to enable homeless, vulnerable or disadvantaged people to take control of their own lives, and to receive the quality of housing and services to which they are entitled.
Since 1981, SHAP has provided services for young and vulnerable people: those who have been homeless, poorly housed, escaping abusive situations or leaving care. Over the years, we have housed many of these people at a point of crisis in their lives, given them a safe space within which they could catch up, and provided them with individual support to help them to make and carry out decisions about their own lives.
We have grown over the years and so has the range of services that we provide. We now support 160 people in accommodation that we provide, and 150 more in floating support services across the North West. We enable people’s own voices to be heard through our advocacy services and provide a small but growing number of youth and community development services.
Our core services remain targeted at meeting the needs of young adults: 16 – 25. This is where our strength, expertise and experience as an organisation has been located and will continue to be at the core of our identity as an organisation. However, as our areas of activity broaden, so does our experience and expertise. We have successfully developed new services by demonstrating our vision and capacity to manage, and then bringing in people with the expertise to develop and grow those services.
Whilst remaining committed to our vision, we remain concerned about the immediate and long term issues facing people in general and the prospects for services for excluded groups in particular. We intend to lobby at local, regional and, where possible, national level to promote the interests of our services users and the need for appropriate levels of funding.
We intend to broaden the work that we do that contributes to the creation of sustainable communities. We will develop and deliver services or joint enterprises that actively work to prevent social inclusion and combat poverty. We intend to focus on the needs of older people, young adults with complex needs and disadvantaged people who move frequently.
We have clear values which underpin all of Shap’s work. We believe in:-
* People’s right to live independently and take control over their lives.
* People’s right to safe, secure, good quality housing and the support that they need to maintain it.
* People’s right to their individuality. We will respect and take account of their race, colour, gender, sexual orientation, age or disability.
* Mutual respect for the people with and for whom we work.
* The rights of our tenants and service users to tell us their views and be involved in decisions that affect their lives and influence the services that they receive.
SHAP is a not for profit, charitable and specialist housing organisation, which exists to enable young and vulnerable people to have their housing needs appropriately met. The organisation provides high quality accommodation with support for young and vulnerable people who are homeless, in housing need or experiencing disruption and difficulty in their life.
SHAP’S BEGINNINGS
SHAP grew from concerns about the needs of young homeless people in the Borough of St Helens, Merseyside. A group of local people and representatives of agencies such as Social Services and the Local Authority formed a committee to establish a provision to begin to meet this need. In 1981, a ten bed hostel was established to meet the needs of young people who needed a period of stability and were not yet ready to live independently. The aim was to provide them with the knowledge, skills and opportunities they require to live independently.
SHAP’S DEVELOPMENT
In 1989, SHAP embarked on a development programme. A primary objective was and remains the development of a wide range of housing with support for young and vulnerable people, enhanced by accessible and positive services delivered in an anti-oppressive way.
SHAP has now developed a much wider range of different types of accommodation and services, and has also extended its work into the neighbouring Boroughs of Knowsley, Halton and Liverpool. SHAP’s current partners include Knowsley Housing Trust, Riverside Housing Association, Arena Housing Association, Helena Housing Association, Maritime Housing Association and Halton Borough Council.
