2018 was a year of highlights for Nightstop.
As the numbers of host homes grew, we celebrated our volunteers, and we invested and evaluated the impact of Nightstop.
Importantly, the number of homes able and willing to host young people grew from 542 in 2017 to 657 in 2018. This will ensure that we do not turn anyone away because we don’t have enough hosts available.
While the young people that access Nightstop are the passion that drives our work, our volunteers are the life-blood which keeps our vital service running. This is why in November we held our first Nightstop Volunteer celebration event in Birmingham. It was attended by volunteers from Nightstop services across the country. Volunteers learned more about Nightstop’s ambitions, heard the story of Nightstop guests, and listened to a musical performance from a young person who has experienced homelessness.
This year, we also developed an exciting partnership with Pixl Insurance to provide our hosts with great value ‘top-up’ insurance to cover Nightstop stays. This should give our hosts the peace of mind they need. Through a micro-grant scheme which we launched last year we were able to provide a burst of funding to help maximise the impact of Nightstop services. In total, 13 micro-grants were awarded to Nightstop services across the UK and helped with such things as targeted marketing to help recruit more hosts, keeping Nightstop guests safe and helping local services develop their own impact assessment.
Lastly, in 2018 we focused on gaining a greater understanding of the impact Nightstop’s work has. We published ‘More than Bednights’, a social return on investment report which showed that Nightstop is so much more than providing a safe place to sleep, with additional outcomes such as a reduced risk of harm, improved sleep and personal care and increased choice and control. We’ve included some of these insights in the pages of this report.
Thank you for reading, and here’s to an even greater impact in 2019.
