700 Club
Our Values The 700 Club strives to:
- deliver quality and safe temporary accommodation and services which are professional, efficient, effective and equitable
- ensure that all people who work or volunteer for the 700 Club are valued, respected and provided with opportunities for continuous development
- encourage partnership and mutual respect between all who work in the 700 Club and people who access its services
- be open, honest, accountable and consistent in all its relationships;
- endeavor to match support with need through structured planning and balanced decision making;
- promote its services and access to them;
- continuously improve the quality of services to contribute to wellbeing of the people who use the services
- engage in appropriate research and collaborative working to support and develop best practice;
- make a full contribution to the town-wide partnerships
The Beginning
In 1994, Darlington Housing Action Group made a public appeal asking for seven hundred people to donate £50.00 towards a new initiative for the homeless. The idea was that enough money would be raised to purchase a small terraced house, selling for around £35,000 those days, which could be converted to house four or five homeless people.
A mock doorway was placed on High Row in Darlington, Tony Blair and Alan Milburn attended, and people pledged and donated money.
In fact, more money was raised than the £35,000 bench mark, and this gave the organisation, The 700 Club (named from the initial proposal of seven hundred donations) the opportunity to purchase a larger property, located on Grange Road in Darlington.
In 1997, the first 700 Club hostel was born.
Hope House
The large house on Grange Road was converted into 18 separate rooms. Each room had its own bathroom; kitchen and laundry facilities were shared. The hostel also had two communal lounges, a smoking one and a non-smoking one.
The building was named Hope House; the word Hope standing for “Housing in a Purposeful Environment”.
Staffed by dedicated support workers 24/7, the hostel, which is still open today and recently celebrated its 10th Anniversary, houses 18 homeless people at any one time.
The hostel was in essence a success. With stable accommodation, the residents found it easier to secure employment and more independent accommodation and most broke the cycle of homelessness. However, some required more support than others to “move on” but still desired independent accommodation.
This made way for a new 700 Club initiative, Emma House.
Emma House
Emma House was leased to the 700 Club by Darlington Borough Council, and was just a normal two bedroom council house. However, the house had a special purpose. The house was big enough for two people to share, and these people would be ex-residents of Hope House; people who desired independent accommodation that wasn’t staffed 24/7, but still needed that little bit of extra support to bridge that gap to independent living.
A member of staff was employed to support the house and the residents who lived in it.
The house was, as the hostel, a huge success. Those people who before had failed when leaving Hope House without support, were now thriving with the extra support and moving on to completely independent living in their own council or private rented properties.
However, The 700 Club had only just touched the tip of the iceberg. The issue of homelessness in Darlington was much worse than first thought, and more and more people were requiring accommodation. Darlington Borough Council couldn’t house everyone, and the town’s hostels including Hope House, were always full and had brimming waiting lists.
More bed-spaces were needed.
The Emma Project & St. Georges Hall
The Emma Project officially became in May 2004. The project was born with two specific angles; accommodation for those leaving supported housing (such as Hope House) but not ready for complete independent accommodation and floating support for people living in their own homes but needing assistance to develop their living skills.
From that point in 2004, the Emma Project has expanded to what we now have in 2008; twelve managed bed-sit houses, four family houses, two taster flats (for young people leaving care), four emergency rooms (for those requiring immediate accommodation in an emergency), numerous Stop2Night bed-spaces (for people aged 16-25 requiring immediate accommodation in an emergency) and thirteen floating support units.
However, it was found that there was still a need for more supported bed-spaces, mainly for those finding themselves homeless for the first time, and in October 2005 an unused church hall, St. Georges Hall on Elmfield Terrace, which had been converted into an 11-bed hostel for the 700 Club, was officially opened by the mayor of Darlington.
St. Georges Hall was very much a needs-based project and information gathered from the previous eight years of providing services to the homeless in Darlington lead the design of the conversion of the old hall. It was found that there was no provision for physically disabled homeless people or homeless couples; when St. Georges Hall opened, it did so with a larger room for a couple and also with a room with disabled access.
The Future
The 700 Club are no longer just a service for accommodation of the homeless; we offer so much more.
Working with the service users, the staff, other organisations and agencies and the local community, we have developed a full range of things to offer to our service users aside from stable accommodation.
Our service users can take advantage of;
- our Daily Living Skills training – a twelve week programme teaching the basic skills need to live independently including budgeting, cooking, laundry skills etc.
- Mentor support – we have a team of volunteer mentors who can befriend a service user at their request and motivate them to further their progression in employment, education, accommodation or in general daily living
- PC sessions – there is a computer available for service users to access. They can either do this alone if they feel competent, or have 1-2-1 tuition to learn basic computer skills
- C-Card scheme – a scheme offering free sexual health advice and contraception to our service users, administered by trained members of staff
- regular events – advice sessions, coffee mornings and parties organised throughout the year
- Newsletter – a quarterly released publication informing service users, other organisations and agencies and the local community about upcoming events and new developments within the 700 Club
With the help of funding bodies, Darlington Borough Council, other organisations and agencies, the local community and our dedicate staff, the 700 Club endeavour to bring the best service possible to the homeless community in Darlington for years to come.