Impact | Moving On Durham

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Our Impact

Moving On works with young vulnerable people who are at risk of or who have experienced homelessness.

Our beneficiaries live in County Durham, which consists of many former mining villages and pockets of disadvantage dispersed across a large geographical area. Our beneficiaries have numerous and myriad challenges including:

poor mental and physical health (often as a result of unresolved trauma)
learning disabilities
drug/alcohol dependency
lack of positive networks or social support
lack of qualifications
criminal record
unemployment and lack of ambition.

Many have been temporarily accommodated in inappropriate accommodation, where they may have acquired additional habits and developed harmful friendships that make their needs even greater. As a result, these young people are very difficult to engage in society. Our experience, developed over 3 decades, has allowed us to develop successful approaches that make a difference.

Theory of Change

The vision of Moving On Durham is that young people are able to live independently and sustainably in the community.

We aim to achieve the vision through the delivery of all our charitable programmes and in particular, through the achievement of our core outcomes:

Young people develop good tenancy management skills

Young people develop an understanding of their place/role in society

Young people improve their physical and mental health

We achieve these outcomes through support planning, advice and guidance. Young people are always in the lead of their own development. They decide how to focus their support and in what areas they feel is most important. They may feel that addressing their mental health is their main priority and support workers will facilitate this, helping them to register with GPs, mental health services etc.

Progress made by young people is observed by support workers or the young person themselves. As the young person achieves outcomes against our theory of change, they increasingly become ready to ‘move on’ away from supported accommodation and into independent accommodation of their own. Young people stay with us until they are ready to move on, which is usually around a year.

We know our approaches are successful, as it is so rare to see the same young person again. They leave our support and in the vast majority of cases they go on to live sustainably and independently in Durham. We are frequently contacted by former beneficiaries who want to give something back. It is great to be able to see the difference we make and how young people have gone on to become happy and successful adults.