New ways of Working at Crisis Skylight Birmingham

New ways of Working at Crisis Skylight Birmingham

Following the introduction of a new approach to supporting members, Crisis Skylight Birmingham now have Engagement & Assessment, Strengths & Assets Coaches and Lead Workers. 

Matt Green, Skylight Director says “For 13 years our staff and volunteers have delivered life changing work with members and now my hope is that we can have an even bigger impact in the lives of people we serve and will ultimately support more people out of homelessness for good”.

To get an insight into how the new roles work, Afzal, one of the engagement and assessment team, discusses the job description for his role and what it means for Crisis members. 

On the impact his team has on the service users when they arrive at the Crisis office in Digbeth for their initial assessment, Afzal explains;

“we provide a safe and welcoming environment to our clients. We listen to their stories and their reasons for needing our service. We explain the options available to them here at Crisis and where required we make an external referral to other charities and organisations that can help with their individual needs. With Crisis values at the centre of everything we do, we make our clients feel valued and plan their support needs with them using our outcome star chart.” 

Afzal adds that,

“to be a good engagement and assessment officer at Crisis, one ought to be an active listener who is professionally curious to get enough information as possible from clients to identify their needs and to support them adequately. Having a good knowledge on housing options is always handy to be able to answer to the housing expectations of people he assesses.” 

Furthermore, Afzal stated that it is essential for him and his teammate to “have unconditional positive regard to clients, be non-judgemental and have emotional intelligence to understand the trauma behind the stores of service users.” 

Although his work is challenging, it is rewarding when peoples’ needs are met in one way or the other. There are equally some barriers and challenges to their job. Afzal identified that the lack of available housing to accommodate people to end their homelessness, especially the strict rules for single people, is always a limitation to their work. Unfortunately, it is beyond their control to ensure everyone who accesses Crisis’ services is placed in a suitable accommodation. “It can be challenging to work at Crisis, however, the outcome of the support is always rewarding and worth the hard work”. Afzal encourages anyone that is looking to work with Crisis in the future can rest assured of maximum support to carry out their duties. Afzal is grateful that he receives adequate support at Crisis and has the flexibility to work with his own knowledge, experience and critical thinking to provide the best possible service within his work limitations. Afzal adds that he particularly enjoys meeting a lot of people on his job, such as members and other professionals to connect with. He said, emergency issues are challenging yet rewarding which is why he does what he does.

Services at Crisis are available to people who are experiencing homelessness or who are at risk of homelessness. Such as people living in the below situations: 

• Temporary Accommodation 
• B&B or Hotel 
• Sofa surfing 
• Rough Sleeping 
• Supported Accommodation 
• Hostel 
• House of Multiple Occupancy

The overall aim of Crisis’ work is to support people in their journey out of homelessness and towards independence. 

Crisis offers the following services

You can contact Crisis Skylight Birmingham by calling 0121 3487950 or emailing birmingham@crisis.org.uk