A charity is urgently appealing for volunteer hosts in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole area who can briefly house young people at risk of homelessness.
Dorset Nightstop provides safe emergency accommodation for people aged 18 to 25 years.
They’re placed with trained volunteer hosts to prevent them from ending up on the streets.
Hosts can be families or individuals and able to offer young people a safe room for the night, an evening meal and breakfast, washing and laundry facilities and, crucially, a caring, listening ear.
Run by Action for Children, Dorset Nightstop was born in 2009 thanks to seed funding from Dorset Churches Together.
It expanded its service into the BCP area a few years ago.
In line with the national picture, requests for Dorset Nightstop’s services have risen steeply post-Covid.
Over the last two years, the charity has provided 163 per cent more ‘bed nights’ than the previous 24 months, while support was given to 50 per cent more people.
Despite being a Dorset-wide service, more than half of Dorset Nightstop’s referrals now come from Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.
Lynn Giles, Children’s Services Manager at Dorset Nightspot, said: “Family breakdown is the biggest reason for young people experiencing homelessness in BCP to come to Nightstop.
“Initially, we were only taking referrals from other services but people can now self-refer. We carefully consider everyone.”
Dorset Nightstop currently has around 30 volunteer hosts.
The charity has been recognised for its outstanding work in preventing young people in crisis from falling into homelessness by being named as the Homelessness Partnership BCP’s Hero for September.
- Email dorsetnightstop@actionforchildren.org.uk if you live in the BCP area and would like to volunteer to host a young person.