Anybody can become unhappy, depressed, addicted, homeless, destitute or at-risk.
The passion and wealth of professional and personal experience amongst our highly-trained staff boosts SIFA Fireside’s ability to offer holistic support to Birmingham’s growing community of people facing and experiencing homelessness.
At the time of her self-referral to SIFA Fireside, “Fiona”, who had previously engaged with our recovery team, was staying in an HMO (House in Multiple Occupation). This had been classed as unsuitable accommodation for her children, and as a result, they were living with her volatile and abusive ex-partner. She was deeply concerned for her childrens’ safety, but experienced barriers to reaching them and staying in contact.
SIFA Fireside’s Support Centre opens its doors.
Fiona needed photo ID in order to obtain safer housing and Universal Credit. She also required the photo ID for legal aid to gain custody of her children. One of the earliest things SIFA Fireside did was find her a family law solicitor, with the full process explained to her by a member of staff with extensive experience in child protection. Fiona was also supported with getting her birth certificate, and provided with transport to her child protection meetings, which were out of the way for her.
With our assistance, she was empowered to report her ex-partner to the police.
After extensive meetings and work with the social services, Fiona’s children were taken away from her ex-partner due to severe neglect. They are now living in long term foster care and she has contact with them once every few months. Her social worker is working with her children’s local social care team to try to increase the frequency of this contact.
Fiona and her new partner were supported by SIFA Fireside to access funding (Discretionary Housing Payment) for the deposit of a private property they had found for themselves.
To ensure that the property was up to standard, our HTWS (Housing Transition Worker Service) visited the property to carry out safety checks and money was provided for a starter pack with housing essentials from Birmingham City Mission.
The Exempt Accommodation/HTWS team at SIFA Fireside.
They were also given advice and support with budgeting, grant applications, council tax and documents for the lease. Reaching out to SIFA Fireside gave Fiona the pivotal help she needed, and today, she and her new partner are still living in their private property and have full custody of their baby. By next year she should be able to have all her children back with her as she is actively working with social services, maintaining her property and paying bills.
The last time we spoke to Fiona, she told us about her plans to celebrate with all of her children for her daughter’s first birthday, and that she is busy making a 2-tier birthday cake.
SIFA Fireside wouldn’t be able to make a difference like this without the Homeless Intervention Team in our Digbeth Support Centre, which relies mainly on kind donations from the public so that they can continue to change lives.
Could you donate to SIFA Fireside and help support Birmingham’s vulnerable people, just like Fiona?
Donate now by following this link and thank you, Brum.
