Homeless mediation
The concept of homeless mediation is a way of working towards the prevention of homelessness. The majority of our cases involve the breakdown of communication between parents and their adult-children, which leads to stressful living conditions and can result in homelessness. Minaz manages the casework and carries out all the visits so has a deep understanding of the process by now and has been able to support the team well whilst providing a strong service to the clients involved.
This type of mediation is particularly difficult as we are often dealing with many complex issues and intense feelings. We strive to work with the parties to deal with some of their issues. Family conflict can often be overwhelming and the parties need support and empathy from the mediator.
We have delivered training sessions in understanding conflict and conflict resolution to the Homeless and Housing Advice team. One of these sessions included exercises to assist the staff to deal with difficult behaviour and communicating in stressful situations. The staff enjoyed the training and felt that they got a good understanding of the basics.
We received 46 referrals from 1st April 2008 to 31st March 2009. We look forward to continuing our successful partnership with the Homeless prevention team in the coming year.