“The team have worked straight through the pandemic” continued Amy.

“We didn’t want to work remotely with the participants; we had done a lot of work with them and some of them rely on the staff a lot more than others for emotional support, guidance and everything else. The team just didn’t want that (to work remotely), they wanted to be there for them so the decision was made from the off.

“Fortunately, everybody’s been well, we’ve all just muddled through, the team have been amazing and deserve great credit, they’ve done really well.

“We’ve had to adapt a lot of things around the house, such as cleaning and wearing masks. There was a lot of procedures put in place around hand washing, gloves and masks and trying to keep distance from each other and although we’ve implemented things to keep everybody safe, it hasn’t impacted the environment that we’re trying to create and it’s still such a nice home environment.”

That home environment is coupled with a positive one. Residents are still gaining employment as well as new skills to live independently. Despite the evident limitations, residents are still able to work on their relationships with family members where they’ve previously broken down in the past.

“We’ve had our challenges and it’s been really tricky at times” Amy added on how residents have coped during lockdown.

“Our residents have got on with it, it’s not been easy for anyone. When the lockdown started this time, we had a meeting to outline the rules, and they were devastated, some of them have got relationships going on and it’s hard, but they have been really good and we’re proud of them.”

Homeless Programme Manager Highlights EitC's Support For Young People