Are you homeless in Bradford tonight?

Are you 16-25 and homeless in Bradford tonight?

affiliated to .................

Depaul Nightstop UK

Page last updated on 20.4.07

Since 1993 Bradford Nightstop has offered free emergency accommodation to homeless young people aged 16 to 25 in the homes of trained volunteers,on a one night at a time basis. On almost 5000 occasions we have offered a bed in one of our homes. It isn't posh, it isn't for long but it is safe and it is really appreciated by the young people.

If you wish to make a sponsor to a runner in the Blackpool Marathon in April please see our News and events page or follow the link below

http://www.justgiving.com/moiraconlon

"my host fed me and gave me a nice warm bed" Male 19

"the host just listened to me and didn't look down on me. I felt listened to" Female 17

"brilliant....nothing could be better after sleeping on the streets" Male 23

 If you are a young person and require somewhere safe to stay today please visit our Young People's page. You cannot refer yourself but please go to one of the agencies listed on the links page or any West Yorkshire Police Station

Bradford Nightstop is a free standing charity with our own Management Committee, however, we are affiliated  to Depaul Nightstop UK and their website is presently  Nightstop UK. Presently 49 different Nightstop schemes are affiliated to Nightstop UK. across the UK.

Emergency Accommodation

Bradford Nightstop has taken over 10,000 referrals during this time. That is 10,000 different occasions when a young person in this district felt they had nowhere safe to stay that night. As often as we have felt it was appropriate and safe both for the young person and for one of our host households we have placed young people with an available host. Bradford City Centre Project provides us with an exclusive use of a room in the BCCP Hostel for Nightstop use. This is a backstop to the committed and skilled hosts that we have operating across the district. In 2007 the referral rate fluctuated with some quieter months but also our busiest month in the history of Bradford Nightstop in August. Even though we have built up our stock of hosts we sometimes have nights when we have no appropriate bed for a young person. We thus must still recruit more hosts. In 2007 we had 700 referrals.

If hosting is not for you then maybe you would consider being a telephone contact person or a driver. Please see our volunteer page.

      (Above) We operate our service across the Bradford District.

Young people are forced to sleep rough in the Bradford District every day of the year. The number of young people we deal with who have experienced rough sleeping in Bradford varies each week. We try to break the cycle of sleeping rough so that the young person can access appropriate longer term accommodation as soon as possible. There are a few direct access hostels in the area but even if they have a possible space sometimes young people are not able to access the bed space until they have the right sort of ID or/and the right sort of benefit or means of paying sorted out. For any young person the benefits system is a minefield but for a young person trying to find emergency accommodation it is an added stress that perhaps services could liaise together more helpfully than they are currently doing.

 We have hosts in the Keighley district as well as across Bradford. 

Although our office is in Manningham, our service operates across the Bradford and Keighley districts. We have a small office where four staff are based and from where almost 60 committed volunteers network together. To find out about possible ways of volunteering with us please visit our Volunteers page.

 Homelessness is caused by a vast range of situations but we find family breakdown is the cause of many young people needing to use our scheme. Although we do not offer any form of mediation or reconciliation we are able to signpost young people to agencies that can help. Three years ago a higher percentage of our referrals came from young people leaving the Care System. Now this is happily much lower as better systems are in place for Care Leavers across Bradford.

We offer free preventative educational sessions in schools and colleges across the district. For more information on this aspect of our work please visit our Education page.

Awareness Raising

We also seek to raise awareness of youth homelessness with the general public, young people and decision-makers to bring about change.

                         We would welcome feedback about our charity to

                                 admin@bradfordnightstop.org.uk