CollaborationNI supporting the Homeless Prevention Floating Support Forum

CollaborationNI have been involved in supporting the Homelessness Prevention over the past year.

CollaborationNI supporting the Homeless Prevention Floating Support Forum

The ‘Forum’ is a group made up of all the existing floating/community based support services in Belfast who provide support to individuals and/or families who are experiencing difficulties in sustaining their tenancies/housing.

With the support and help of CollaborationNI, they have recently created and signed a Memorandum of Understanding.

The purpose of their Memorandum of Understanding is to outline key components between the members of the Forum, in order for them to collectively raise awareness of floating support services, that help prevent homelessness, and help people to access the service most suited to their specific support needs.

Pictured:

Back Row L-R: Bob Webb (EXTERN), Liam O’Hanlon (Supporting People, NIHE), Declan Morris (Simon Community NI), Gill Wood (Barnardo’s), Brendan O’Rourke (Threshold), Cora DeBaroid (Womens Aid), Richard Begley (Supporting People, NIHE)

Front Row L-R: Maura DeMello (DePaul), Eva Koerner (MACS), Cora Smith (Triangle), Mal Byrne (EXTERN), Alison Robinson (Autism Initiatives), Glenys Dunlop (LIFE), Joanne Murray (Homecare), Catherine Toner (Action Ability), Andrea Egan (CollaborationNI).

Other members of the Forum who are not pictured also include: Paul Fleming (NIACRO), Aidan Byrne (Hosford), Catherine Apsley (Belfast Central Mission), Trevor Taylor (Cedar).

Declan Morris describes the support the groups received from CollaborationNI:

“The support and help offered by CollaborationNI was instrumental in the work we sought to achieve. In particular, the opportunity to have a neutral facilitator direct our initial work, it’s safe to say we may not have achieved what we have thus far. Furthermore, Andrea’s support and guidance with our MoU was massively important throughout our collaborative process.

Thank you.”

CollaborationNI are happy that the Homelessness Prevention Alliance, which is made up of a number of organisations, have had a successful launch on Tuesday 5 November by bringing it back to where it all started. 

We have been involved in helping the Alliance over the last year with support on preparing a Memorandum of Understanding and expert facilitation.  We have enjoyed working with them and wish them every success in their future collaboration together.