Can you help us help more young people to reach their potential?

Here’s how you can be one of our community referral partners:

Service opening times

Our service is open for referrals between 9.00-3.00pm, Monday to Friday.

The ability for us to offer Nightstop placements is dependent on the number of volunteer hosts we have available to us. Please ring us on 07500 770 996 to check current availability before proceeding – we’re always happy to hear from you.

For the best chance of a same-day placement we’d advise that referrals are submitted to us before 11.00am. In any event, we are not always able to set up a Nightstop placement on the same day that we receive a referral as it may not always be feasible to do everything we need to do to set up a safe placement in time, including meeting a young person face2face.

Our service offer

Sussex Nightstop is the only local service providing same-day accommodation for 16-25 year olds at risk of homelessness and/or rough-sleeping in the homes of vetted and trained volunteer hosts.

Our volunteer hosts offer a warm and caring family environment for young people at a point of crisis they combine practical support (a private room, hot meal, breakfast and packed lunch, access to washing facilities) along with kindness and compassion when all else may appear bleak.

Staying safe at night means young people are able to sustain the positive life opportunities they are invested in during the day including work and study. Restored from a good night sleep, they can work with our service coordinators and our housing advice partners to shape and progress a longer-term housing plan.

We work with young people with low and/or medium supports needs and we have systems in place to ensure that the service is safe for all involved. We listen to our young guests, pay attention to the detail and provide wrap-around support that best supports a positive outcome, working with and signposting to a wide-range of local services to do so. We will not place a young person in Nightstop where we feel the end goal of suitable accommodation is not achievable or where to do so would place them or anyone else involved in the service at risk.

Both rough-sleeping and sofa-surfing have a profoundly negative impact on the physical, and mental well-being of young people. The risks of physical, verbal and sexual abuse are well known, along with a deterioration in mental health and well-being and exposure to exploitation and coercion. Early prevention is critical.

We want to reach young people for whom Nightstop would work brilliantly but who are not (and perhaps would not) use our usual referral pathways. We want no young person to fall through the net.

We want to work with peers and colleagues in local community settings who have regular contact with young people age 16-25 years and are therefore excellently placed to help young people access our service.

As one of our community referral partners we have some simple asks of you:

  • To consider Sussex Nightstop when having a conversation with a young person who mentions they are rough-sleeping, at risk of rough-sleeping and/or sofa-surfing or where a young person describes a home situation that may be escalating to that end point
  • To give your young person some information about Nightstop
  • To support your young person to fill out our simple ‘first step’ referral form and information sharing consent form which includes four questions for you (as a referrer organisation) to answer at the end. Here are our scheme conditions to help you answer those questions

We’ll do the rest:

  • We will contact the young person by phone to introduce ourselves, answer questions and ask them a few more
  • If Nightstop seems a good option we will arrange for them to meet us face-2-face
    This meeting will involve a more in-depth conversation with them about their circumstances where we’ll assess their suitability to Nightstop. They can also decide whether we’re suitable for them!
  • Housing advice is a critical element of Nightstop being successful. We will, in nearly all cases, connect the young person in with experienced housing advisors as part of the Nightstop referral process
  • If Nightstop goes ahead we will coordinate overnight stays with our hosts, making contact with the young person after every stay and meeting them face2face regularly to check well-being and ensure they are linked in with support and are progressing housing plans
  • We will keep in touch with the young person throughout the referral process and you, as the referrer, as appropriate

What if Nightstop doesn’t fit or the young person doesn’t like the idea of it?

No contact or conversation is wasted. Anything that raises awareness or brings young people closer to services that can support and benefit them is good with us!

We often meet young people where Nightstop isn’t the right fit and in this instance we will always signpost and refer as appropriate to other services who may be able to help e.g. it may be that they don’t stay in Nightstop but they do continue working with a housing advisor.

Whether you’re a community referral partner or not you can also support the work of Sussex Nightstop by:

  • Sharing our socials via your networks; ensuring word of the service gets out there
  • Linking young people in with our website and Instagram page
  • Telling us about the services you offer young people so that we can link them into you