Youth Concern is relaunching Aylesbury Nightstop. We need your help!

Not knowing where you are going to sleep can be terrifying and isolating. Homelessness leaves people vulnerable and makes the simplest of daily tasks a challenge. Compared to the national average, Aylesbury Vale has 22% more young people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

Local charity Youth Concern runs Aylesbury Nightstop. Nightstop’s aim is to prevent any young person from experiencing a homelessness crisis. Since 2012, we have provided emergency accommodation to 150 homeless young people in Aylesbury Vale.

Nightstop offers a few nights’ short-term emergency accommodation to homeless 16 25 year olds. Trained volunteer hosts provide a safe place to sleep, a meal and a warm welcome for one young person at a time. Each young person is thoroughly assessed to ensure the safety of the host. With the basics covered, Youth Concern then works with the young homeless person on finding a longer-term housing solution, helping them get their lives back on track.

Youth homelessness is a real if often unseen issue in Aylesbury Vale. Last year we researched local need. Pre-pandemic, 330 under 25s in Aylesbury Vale identified themselves as homeless. The number of vulnerably housed young people is increasing during 2021.

Nightstop is a unique project that relies on community hosting. We can’t do it without our community!

So this autumn, we are looking for

• Nightstop volunteer hosts – to open their homes from time to time to young people, ensuring they don’t sleep in unsafe places
• Volunteer drivers and chaperones – to get young people to a place of safety

We would particularly welcome interest from Black, Asian and minority ethnic people. Our research found one of the main reasons young people become homeless locally is racism; we are keen to hear from potential volunteers who represent our BAME Nightstop guests.  All volunteers are trained and given on-going support to carry out their roles.

Communities and charities run Nightstop services across the UK, led and supported by Depaul UK. In 2019, volunteers provided 9,103 safe nights of accommodation to 937 people across the Nightstop network, and in 2020, despite Covid, hosts gave 7,019 safe nights to 526 people.

The young people who come to Aylesbury Nightstop are from a variety of backgrounds and situations. Some are exhausted by living in unsafe environments, some are traumatised by abuse, loss or neglect.

If you are welcoming, hospitable and have a spare room or access to a car, please get in touch. Thank you for helping us keep Aylesbury Vale’s young people safe at night.

nightstop@youthconcern.org.uk 01296 43183 www.youthconcern.org.uk/what-we-do/homelessnes