The Women's Day Centre at Cosway Street

The Church Army Women's Day Centre was established in 1996 as a direct response to the growing concern about the lack of appropriate and accessible provision available to women in need of housing assistance. The Centre stills stands out as an innovative project, within the field of homelessness for women.

Our client group has complex and multiple needs around drug and alcohol use, and many have long term mental health issues. The problems they face do not always stem from not having a place to live. Women's previous experiences include many forms of abuse and exploitation and the lives they have been forced to live are often chaotic and fragmented. The Centre offer's a new experience for many women an environment in which they can feel safe and supported.

The Centre provides assistance and advice around housing, welfare benefits and immigration issues. Access to the Centre can be via an agency or self referral. The advice sessions run in the morning and in parallel with the drop-in service run specifically for female rough sleepers. Women presenting in crisis can access support through the advice sessions, gain use of the showers, laundry facility and the luggage store.

The support that we offer around housing has two main components. The first is around crisis intervention with the aim of working with clients and helping them get into first stage accommodation. The second area is concerned with tenancy support. Over the last 3 years we have seen an increasing number of women who have been resettled but are experiencing many difficulties with their tenancy which they feel unable to manage on their own. We therefore provide on-going support and assistance to clients, helping them to retain their tenancy and their capacity to live independently. This remains a crucial area of concern as many homeless clients whom we know, have experienced what has come to be known as the 'revolving door syndrome' within the homeless sector.

Education Programme

The day centre offers an extensive Basic Skills programme (English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), Literacy and Numeracy), Career Guidance Service and IT programme in partnership with Westminster Adult Education Service and City of Westminster College. We have UK-Online centre status and are part of the Church Street UK-Online partnership.

Future plans

We are currently seeking funding to appoint a qualified child care worker to run a children's programme and she will be working alongside a Day Centre project worker and volunteers. We plan to provide a supportive and fun learning environment for the children and parenting classes and health promotion sessions for the parents which will be provided by a local health visitor.

We have become concerned with the increasing number of older clients that have presented in crisis at the Centre  with ranging from: rough sleeping; difficulty in sustaining their tenancy; serious physical health concerns; long term mental health issues or not being linked into mainstream service provision.

We are seeking funding to create a specialist post to work specifically with older female clients. The post will focus primarily on housing assistance and health care (physical and mental well being). We envisage that this post will have a broad remit which will involve on and off site assessments (day centre and clients home) and support accessing mainstream provision.

The Facts

During 2006, 650 individual women accessed the Day Centre and of those:

• 22% were sleeping rough
• 36% were refugees
• 8% had mental health issues
• 72% required assistance into first stage accommodation (e.g. hostels)
• 43% were successfully resettled
• 28% required support to sustain their tenancies
• 32% accessed our education programme

The Women's Day Centre, 1 - 5 Cosway Street, London NW1 5NR
Tel: 020 7262 3818, Fax: 020 7402 8752
E-mail: daycentre@maryleboneproject.org.uk