L-R: Shwetha Ravichanderan, Support Worker MUST Hostel; Megan McLaughlin, Service Manager MUST Hostel; Natalie Timothy, Learning and Development Coordinator Homeless Connect
A Visit to MUST Hostel and SAIL Floating Support Team Cookstown
During the summer months, Homeless Connect regularly engages in service visits with our member organisations. These visits give Homeless Connect the opportunity to meet with staff directly and to hear about what is happening on the ground, ultimately helping us to better advocate for the needs of services across the sector.
Our most recent visit was to Extern’s MUST Hostel in Cookstown and their adjoining MDT Floating Support Team and SAIL Project.
MUST Hostel
MUST (Mid-Ulster and South Tyrone) Hostel in Cookstown is a temporary supported accommodation service for single people aged 18-65 experiencing homelessness provided by Extern.
MUST hostel can accommodate and support up to 20 residents, both men and women, at any one time. Their accommodation comprises of 16 single rooms and four self-contained apartments.
MUST work in close collaboration with the Probation Board Northern Ireland (PBNI) and the hostel itself is a probation approved hostel. In this way, as well as receiving referrals into the service via the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, MUST also receive direct referrals from the PBNI.
The Visit
When we arrived at MUST we were welcomed by service manager Megan McLaughlin and some of the day-shift staff team, including Shwetha Ravichanderan, one of the full-time members of staff at MUST. We discussed with staff the nature of the service and its clients as well as the support they provide in helping people experiencing homelessness to move-on into independent living in their communities.
It was really apparent in the discussion that the service met people where they are at, with a low-threshold, high-tolerance approach, supporting individuals with a range of needs. With a wide range of clientele, staff work and respond to residents in a holistic and person-centred way. This approach is embedded in the ethos of the service which provides a secure and supportive environment and fosters positive progress in aiding the process of reintegrating individuals into the community.
The comprehensive and tailored support provided by staff to residents is designed to meet a range of diverse needs and empower residents to progress towards their goals. This person-centred way of working is greatly valued and appreciated by clients and past residents of MUST, some of whom regularly check in with the service and staff to update them on their progress. This is a testament to the work done by staff at MUST to make a positive difference in the lives of people experiencing homelessness.
This positive impact of the work and appreciation from clients was also apparent when speaking to the staff from the SAIL project. The SAIL (Supporting Adults for Independent Living) Project is a Supporting People-funded floating support service which aims to empower individuals to embrace independent living within the community and maintain their tenancies successfully. Currently, there are two members of staff – Eithna Shields and Richard McGrotty – who work as part of the SAIL project, yet despite being a small team, the impact they have is significant and this is reflected in the number of thank you cards and messages of appreciation from past service users.
When on a tour around the site with Megan we were brought outdoors to the residents’ garden which was blooming with flowers, fruit and vegetables that the residents had been growing. Megan advised that the current residents at the hostel enjoy gardening and find it to be beneficial to their mental health and wellbeing, as such the team were pleased when they were awarded a grant from B&Q to redevelop the garden. Megan and her team hope to introduce some elements to promote mindfulness and relaxation as well as plans to use the produce grown to cook meals for residents in the hostel’s kitchen.
Challenges
Like many other organisations in the sector, MUST experiences challenges surrounding funding shortages, staff burnout and the lack of affordable move-on housing. In particular, the lack of affordable move-on accommodation is having an impact on the motivation of resident and morale with many unable to move back into the community. This ultimately is a contributing factor to staff burnout and moral injury, something which is being experienced across the sector.
In addition to the above challenges, MUST hostel and its staff experience additional complexities and challenges due to being a probation approved hostel, for example, balancing the hostels support with resident’s court-mandate requirements. Yet, despite these complexities, staff at MUST continue to provide compassionate and holistic support to residents.
Conclusions
I came away from my visit to MUST hostel struck by the clear dedication of the staff team. In speaking to Megan, who had only recently become the manager of the MUST hostel, we were struck both by the depth of her commitment to the project as well as her level of insight in to so many different areas. It was clear that the staff at MUST – and indeed staff at the SAIL project and MDT floating support team – strive to make a positive difference in the lives of the people they support, something which is clearly demonstrated in the feedback and experience from past residents.
Homeless Connect are extremely grateful to Megan and the team at MUST for facilitating our visit. You can follow the work of the team on Extern’s social media accounts: X, Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as on their website.
