A special thank you to Benjamin Zephaniah, writer, musician, actor and activist, for introducing this episode.

If you’re enjoying this podcast, we’d be really grateful if you rated and reviewed it on your favourite podcatcher. Doing so helps ensure this is heard by even more supporters, and even more housing and support professionals, and that helps us in our mission to keep the work of the Lead Worker Peer Mentor service going.

Welcome to Challenging, a podcast by Shelter reflecting on the ambitious and life-changing service run with Birmingham Changing Futures Together, that helped people with multiple and complex needs out of homelessness.

This episode is going to be a little bit different because we wanted to spend some more time with Colette. You'll have met her in previous episodes, interviewing Lee and talking about the value of lived experience. Like many people you'll hear on this podcast, Colette embodies the spirit and the whole idea of the Lead Work Peer Mentor service. We wanted to give you an opportunity to get to know her better. In this episode, she'll talk more about her past before she joined Shelter, and her vision for the future.

And if any organisations and commissioners in the Birmingham area are listening, you're really gonna want to listen to this one.

Read the full social cost-benefit analysis of the Lead Worker Peer Mentor service http://shltr.org.uk/ifj

Welcome to Challenging, a podcast by Shelter reflecting on the ambitious and life-changing service run with Birmingham Changing Futures Together, that helped people with multiple and complex needs out of homelessness.

In this episode, we’ll look at the part lived experience plays in helping people out of homelessness. The service hired people who’d had similar experiences to the clients they would work with, such as homelessness, mental health concerns, substance misuse and offending behaviour. You’ll hear from three former workers from the Lead Worker Peer Mentor service; Pipa, Nick, and Colette.

If you’re enjoying this podcast, we’d be really grateful if you rated and reviewed it on your favourite podcatcher. Doing so helps ensure this is heard by even more supporters, and even more housing and support professionals, and that helps us in our mission to keep the work of the Lead Worker Peer Mentor service going.

Read the full social cost-benefit analysis of the Lead Worker Peer Mentor service http://shltr.org.uk/ifj

CONTENT WARNING: Substance misuse, domestic abuse and trauma.

Welcome to Challenging, a podcast by Shelter reflecting on the ambitious and life-changing service run with Birmingham Changing Futures Together, that helped people with multiple and complex needs out of homelessness.

In this episode you'll hear about Multiple and Complex Needs; those having experienced them, and those still dealing with them. Also the support needs the Lead Worker Peer Mentor Project mainly worked on, being homelessness, substance misuse, mental health needs and offending behaviour.

Some of what you hear may be upsetting, and we have bleeped out any swear words.

For four years we ran a unique and life-changing project called the Lead Worker Peer Mentor Service, in partnership between Birmingham Voluntary Service Council, SIFA Fireside and Birmingham Mind.

Read the full social cost-benefit analysis of the Lead Worker Peer Mentor service http://shltr.org.uk/ifj

Welcome to Challenging, a podcast by Shelter reflecting on the ambitious and life-changing service run with Birmingham Changing Futures Together, that helped people with multiple and complex needs out of homelessness.

For four years we ran a unique and life-changing project called the Lead Worker Peer Mentor Service, in partnership between Birmingham Voluntary Service Council, SIFA Fireside and Birmingham Mind.

This was part of a programme called Birmingham Changing Futures Together, one of twelve projects funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, to create better support for people with multiple and complex needs.

The idea was simple and two-fold:

One: support people with a mix of complex needs, every step of the way. From doctors' appointments to court hearings, to just having a regular coffee.

Two: hire people who’ve experienced a combination of issues such as homelessness, substance misuse, mental health needs, and offending - and have them support people going through the same things. If you’ve been there, you know the way out.

Over this series you’ll hear about the Lead Worker/Peer Mentor service, run from the Shelter service in Birmingham.

We know there’ll be a real mix of people listening to this. Some of you will know exactly what I mean when I say things like MCN, liaison & diversion, and commissioners, and some of you won’t have the foggiest.

But that’s alright! We’ll explain what all those terms mean as we go along.

Over the series you’ll hear from my colleagues here at Shelter, and the people we work with at different agencies and organisations. You’ll also hear from the people we’ve helped as they explain what this programme has done for them.

We hope by end of the series, you’ll appreciate that programmes like this are important and life-changing. We also hope you’ll feel galvanised to help us keep doing this work, because it’s vital.

On this episode: what are Lead Workers and Peer Mentors, and what do they do?

Read the full social cost-benefit analysis of the Lead Worker Peer Mentor service http://shltr.org.uk/ifj