The Rock Trust was established in 1991 and supports young people in Edinburgh and West Lothian and provides training and development support for other organisations across Scotland and in Europe. The Rock Trust aims to tackle youth homelessness by providing personal and practical support to young homeless people, enabling them to concentrate upon the issues which are excluding them from stability, assisting them to develop the self-confidence and skills they need to live independently. Support offered includes:
Supported accommodation: The Bedrock Project provides accommodation in a mixture of shared and single flats in both Edinburgh and West Lothian with intensive support. It includes specific provision for young parents and babies. The Mainstay project is a variant of the supported accommodation where ‘move on support’ is given to those moving into their own tenancy.
Healthy living: The Rock Trust, in partnership with five other voluntary and statutory agencies, provides a healthy living/drop-in centre. It helps youngsters look at health and well being in its broadest sense – the emphasis is on making healthy living practical and fun.
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The Rock Trust Networks Project
The Rock Trust receives funding from The Big Lottery Fund to run an enhanced Social Networks project. The aim of the Networks project is to provide opportunities for young people to develop the personal social and practical skills, as well as the sense of self worth necessary for independent adult life.
About the Networks project: The Networks Project has been created to help enable young people to develop ways in (re)building positive social networks necessary for moving on to, or living in their own tenancies.
The project works with 16-25 year olds who are homeless/at risk of homelessness, isolated or socially excluded.
Through the use of 1:1 support, group work, befriending and ‘activities out’ the project aims to support young people to explore their social networks and recognise where they could make changes and develop a plan to build new or rebuild old networks.
For further information on the Rock Trust Networks project, click on the links below:
The Rock Trust Analysis of Networks Survey 2005
Whittick, J. 2005. Evaluation of the Underground and Network Projects The Rock Trust
Because of the success of The Rock Trust’s Social Networks project and their track record of successful partnership working they are funded by Communities Scotland for a period of two years to host a National post to promote and support the development of Social Network projects for homeless people across Scotland and develop the Scottish Social Networks Forum. www.rocktrust.org