Changing services: changing lives | 14 January 2010 | Birmingham

Are you ready to change your service?

This conference will share good practice ideas that can be made within your service to more effectively support a homeless person. It is not necessarily about completely revolutionising your service, as even a small change, without a large capital investment, can make a big difference. It will look at how you can:

• change your use of space
• change your staff culture
• change how you include all of your clients
• change the type of meaningful activities you offer
• change your approach to be person centred
• change how your local community sees your service.

For more information or to book your place, please click here.

Talking street: 8 December 2009 | London

Free outreach good practice event

A free, national event to share good practice among street outreach practitioners.

A year on from the launch of the Government’s strategy, No One Left Out: Communities Ending Rough Sleeping, Homeless Link and Communities and Local Government are holding a free event that will focus on the role of street outreach teams in ending rough sleeping.

At this event we will be showcasing effective outreach practices from across the country and providing practical examples of how you can help to stop people sleeping on the streets - for good.

Please click here to book your place or for more information.

Are you tuned in? Getting clients' voices heard | 20 October 2009 | London

A one day conference, in partnership with St Mungo's, for sharing practical approaches to client involvement.

This conference is now fully booked.

In this conference we will be showcasing effective client involvement practices from across the country and providing practical examples of how you can improve participation within your own organisation.

Client involvement is all about engaging homeless and formerly homeless people in the planning, delivery and evaluation of all services. It is possible with even the most vulnerable individuals. The aim is to work in partnership to continually improve services – be it a brief contact to involving a client longer-term – this conference will look at all of the options.

Making use of the insights, knowledge and skills of people who have experienced homelessness benefits both the project and the organisation as a whole. At the same time, giving clients the opportunity to contribute helps them to gain experience and confidence - empowering them to move away from a dependence on services.

For more information or to book your place please click here.

Alternatively please call 020 7960 3032 or email: kate.alaway@homelesslink.org.uk.

Homeless Link's Annual Conference, 6 - 8 July, University of Warwick

The annual event for the homelessness sector, where we were looking at different methods to prevent and end rough sleeping and homelessness. For more information on the event please click here.

Alternatively please call 020 7960 3032 or email: kate.alaway@homelesslink.org.uk.

Free half-day events for local authorities: spotlight on good practice in working with A8 and A2 nationals

Spotlight events are good-practice events. These are an opportunity to network, highlight good practice and to discuss specific areas of work.

These spotlights were aimed at local authorities in four English regions who are interested in different ways of working with homeless A8 and A2 nationals. The events also give delegates the chance to hear from CLG about their latest good practice notes on tackling rough sleeping among Central and Eastern European migrants.

• 15 July 2009, Peterborough, for local authorities in East Midlands and East of England - click here to view the programme and feedback from the event
• 20 July 2009, Stoke on Trent, for local authorities in North West and West Midlands - click here to view the programme and feedback from the event

Migrants - contribution, integration, destitution?

Everyone has the right to shelter in 21st century Europe. This practical one-day event looked at how to tackle one of the key feeder routes to someone sleeping rough.

Migrant populations new to the UK are vulnerable. Without recourse to public funds, and without the right help, there is a high likelihood that they will end up sleeping rough.

This conference exploreed the short and long-term support options, as well as the housing, health, employment and benefit entitlements of 3 different migrant groups; these groups being those who are most likely to face destitution:

• Central and Eastern Europeans
• failed asylum seekers
• other migrants outside the asylum system.

In November 2008, the Government committed to tackling rough sleeping, with one of the aims targeted at supporting migrant populations. This conference was an opportunity to support this aim and improve the outcomes for these vulnerable groups, by bringing together Local Authorities and voluntary sector organisations to share understanding, solutions and approaches.

For further information and to download the workshop presentations please click here.