Growing through the years between the age of 12 and 21 is challenging for everyone and CAYSH subscribes to the universal view that the best place to do this is at home with family. We work with young people and their primary carer (normally mum or dad) to try to ensure as many people get to grow up at home as possible where home life is a bit bumpy.
Young people often describe experiences of being treated "like a small child". Parents often feel "taken for granted" and "treated like hoteliers". We aim first to mediate and help create a refreshed approch to communicating with each other. CAYSH's Family Floating Support service aims to help young people and their parents to talk to each other in a way that's acceptable to everyone as a starting point to avoiding housing crisis.
Some young people we meet are beyond the point at which reconcilliation with their family is possible. Often, sadly, by the time a young person reaches 16, family relationships may have been so problematic that intervention work such as mediation is unlikely to succeed. In these instances we work with young people to help get them safely and securely housed. Once that's done - and if that's what the young person wants - we will try to help them re-engage with their family.
In response to this, we have investigated the current family support services in the borough of Croydon to see whether we could create a service which addressed this need. The Family Floating Support pilot was developed in September 2008.
