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Housing-led initiatives for homeless people
Housing-led initiatives for homeless people
Start date: Jun 1, 2014,
End date: May 31, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
BMSZKI is the largest provider of homelessness services in the Hungarian capital, providing a wide range of care to homeless people
(outreach work, accommodation, daytime services, health care, counselling in the areas of housing, substance abuse and
employment, etc.), as well as training opportunities to both its users, homeless people and staff. The goal of BMSZKI is to increase its
European network in order to learn more about current trends, policies used on the European and national level to help homeless
people with multiple needs, and thus decrease the number of people experiencing homelessness. The good practices and new
methods thus learnt can result in the improvement of services for homeless people in Hungary, in new projects to help Hungary
realize the goals of EU 2020 strategy about reduction of the number of people living in poverty. The dissemination of experiences
will also lead to the transformation of our training programs, a wider range of training opportunities for both target groups.
During the 24 months-long-project 6 people will participate in 2-3 day training opportunities in the form of international conferences, while 9 people will take part in 6-week job shadowing individual trips at 8 different organizations. The international
conferences are organized by FEANTSA, the Federation of European Homeless Service Providers, who regularly gather new trends,
solutions and best practices, as well as support the dissemination of evidence-based policy papers. Apart from new information,
conferences offer the possibility of networking, meeting new organizations, starting new initiatives. The individual study trips
provide an opportunity to participants to get an insight into the work of the host organization. Through job shadowing beneficiaries
participate in all activities local staff do, adapting to the local working hours, under the supervision of an assigned mentor.
In the autumn of 2014 beneficiaries shall be selected through an open call, who will receive professional and language training. The
two conferences will take place in 2014 as well. Individual study trips will be organized during 2015. The last six months of the
project are reserved for evaluation and dissemination.
The learning and language skills of participants will improve, they will acquire new knowledge. Getting to know other cultures and
work methods will help develop intercultural skills. The newly learnt methods and practices will create new training opportunities,
programs for homeless people, enhancing their social integration and ways out of homelessness.
One of the long term goals of BMSZKI is to ensure that all homeless people receive the housing and other forms of support needed.
We hope to start a new housing first project in the autumn of 2014, which would greatly lean on and be inspired by the experiences
gained abroad. We plan to use the new practices and methods learnt to help reform the system of service provision of homeless
people in Hungary in the mid- and long term – and lead to the decrease of homeless people sleeping rough (parallel to the
declaration of the European Parliament).