Accommodation Stages

Emmaus House is the first stage in our accommodation structure and provides short term emergency accommodation. It's the first port of call for any young person wishing to be accommodated with Step by Step. Emmaus House is a friendly environment where residents enjoy a supportive, secure and stable living environment. Each resident has their own key-worker who will work with them to identify goals and development needs and support them in achieving their full potential in a step-by-step, manageable way.

Emmaus House is staffed 24 hours a day, and has a mixture of twin and triple rooms. Young people can stay here for up to 13 weeks, after which many move into our second stage Accommodation Project, at Victoria Road. Every year we have many more referrals than we can accommodate. Last year (2005-06) we accommodated 105 young people.

Development and sharing of skills are essential elements of the work within Emmaus House and to aid this process each young person takes responsibility for household chores, which are rotated on a daily basis. In addition, the residents all have meals together and each resident takes turns in preparing and cooking the meals. Young people at this stage are also supported through financial difficulties and taught the skills necessary for basic budgeting. They are also supported in beginning to address the bigger emotional and relationship difficulties which are adversely impacting their lives.

To find out how to refer yourself or someone else to Emmaus House please click here.

Victoria Road is our second stage Accommodation Project and offers move-on accommodation and support for up to 15 young people from Emmaus House.

At Victoria Road the young people enjoy a slightly higher degree of independence and are responsible for budgeting their money and cooking for themselves. This is often the first step for many of them in taking responsibility for their lives.

Very often, it is at this stage the young people find that they have reached a level of stability sufficient to start addressing some of the bigger issues in their lives and really taking control of their development as individuals and make a concrete plan for their future. Key working is vital to this process. Taking a client-centred approach, the key worker will continue the work started at Emmaus House by working with the young person to identify goals and areas for development as well as any additional support needs. Key working enables the young person to continue to strive towards reaching their full potential.

Victoria Road is staffed 24 hours a day, has a mixture of single and twin rooms and young people can live here for up to 1 year. Last year 44 young people were accommodated at Victoria Road. Many found that by the time they reached this stage they were ready to embark on independent living and some moved on to the next stage of our Accommodation Projects - Mills House.

Mills House is the third stage of our Accommodation Projects and comprises seven semi-independent flats, located together about a mile away from Emmaus House and Victoria Road.

These flats are specifically for the young people moving on from the Victoria Road project who have progressed well and have shown their ability to live independently. The young people experience a significantly increased level of independence. For the most part the young people are living their lives independently; they are responsible for their own property and all that goes with living alone, although they do have the support of their peers around them and there is a dedicated project worker who offers low-level support to the clients. They still have weekly key-working sessions and can, at any time, request support with anything that is causing them difficulty.

Young people can stay at Mills House up until their twenty-sixth birthday, however the majority of young people reach the point where they are ready to move on well in advance of that stage.

Our final stage Accommodation Project is our seven individual Community Flats, which are spread across Aldershot and Farnborough. The flats accommodate young people who have been through the other stages of accommodation and are ready for the transition between Step by Step and fully independent living. This takes around six to twelve months.