Collaboration and co-production are fundamental tenets of the way in which the organisation is run. In addition to psychological services, we provide a peer mentorship programme for those who are homeless.
Peer Mentoring Mission:
Building a network of people with lived experience to support, advise, and befriend people with multiple disadvantages in the hopes of reducing rough sleeping and the impacts of homelessness.
Aims of Peer Mentoring:
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- Provide non-judgmental support
- Utilising one’s own lived experience to guide the relationship
- Empower clients to engage with support services
- Develop peer groups for both clients and peers to gain support
What is a Peer Mentor?
A peer mentor is someone who has experience of homelessness and supports someone who is currently homeless.
Peers provide empathy, acceptance, active listening, companionship, and empower their clients. The relationship is beneficial to both peers and clients, where clients get support, peers experience an increase in confidence and self-esteem.
Lived Experience Leading the Way
The peer-client relationship is unique because of a shared experience of hardship. Peer mentors become role models for clients, being someone who has faced similar difficulties and succeeded in overcoming them.
Those with lived experience of homelessness are key to our work, and we are always developing our approach with input from the peers and clients.
Peer Mentoring in South England
We have been working with homeless services across the South, developing and implementing a peer mentorship programme for those who are homelessness.
Our Peers
Charlie Wood, Lead Peer Mentor (Basingstoke), OutcomeHome & Director, Mind the Gap
Charlie Wood has two years of peer to peer mentoring experience. He has contributed to the MEAM approach work in the area and is a member of the Social Inclusion Partnership in Basingstoke, working together to end homelessness. He spent nine months sleeping rough and as a result suffered ill mental health and addiction problems. Charlie is originally from East London and is a passionate West Ham United Supporter.
Charlie Radbourne, Lead Peer Mentor (Winchester), OutcomeHome
Charlie Radbourne has more than two years, peer support and advocacy experience. Sitting on many service user forums and local authority committees. Due to mental health problems, coming under CMHT and the crisis team, Charlie spent eight months sleeping rough and in the local night shelter, then four years in a hostel / supported accommodation. Charlie now got life back on track and have again, what is most precious—his children back in his life.
Our Associates:
Gabriella Orsini, Assistant Psychologist & Research Assistant
Gabriella is working with Outcome Home on several projects including the peer mentoring programme. Gabriella recently graduated with a degree in Psychology, with her dissertation focused on women’s experiences of homelessness.