3rd February 2011

Alabaré and DHI working together to support families across Somerset

Alabaré has joined forces with Developing Health and Independence (DHI) to help vulnerable families across Somerset prevent themselves becoming homeless.

Alabaré, a charity that supports homeless and vulnerable people across the South and South West, is working in partnership with DHI (formerly the Drugs and Homelessness Initiative) to deliver a support service to families across five districts in the county – South Somerset, West Somerset, Mendip, Taunton Dene and Sedgemoor – after being awarded the contract by Somerset County Council.

The Somerset Families Floating Support Service provides support to families who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, with specialist support for teenage parents.  It is a floating support service, which means that the families can receive the support in their own homes or wherever they are currently living.  The service goes to them for as long as they need it.

The Somerset Families Floating Support Service is able to help up to 150 families at any one time and offers three levels of support:  Rapid response for people who are in a crisis; a resettlement service for families moving into new accommodation; and support for families at risk of becoming homeless.

The aim of the new initiative is to enable families to stabilise their housing situation, develop skills to sustain their housing, improve emotional and physical health, to promote stable relationships and child welfare, to enable access to specialist agencies and to facilitate recovery.

The partnership between Alabaré and DHI is not a new one; the two charities have been working together since 2005 as the lead organisations of Community 4, a consortium of four organisations that provide a floating support service to vulnerable people in Wiltshire. 

Alabaré’s Senior Manager Rachel Wetton said:

“We are delighted to be working in partnership with Somerset County Council and DHI to deliver this new initiative.  The Somerset Families Support Service is an invaluable resource for the local community that will help improve the lives of many marginalised families in the local area.”