Restart provides shared supported accommodation for the homeless or those at risk of homelessness, helping individuals to successfully re-settle and integrate back into community life, whilst providing a safe place for those who want to deal with life’s challenges. 

All our houses are leased with local accredited landlords. All properties are furnished and have a rolling programme of Health and Safety inspections, communal cleaning, general maintenance and decoration. 

The majority of our properties are situated within Stoke-on-Trent and great care is taken to work with local communities to reduce community cohesion issues.  

Clients receive an individually tailored support package. We help them to develop confidence and, as a result, individuals develop positive relationships, promoting social inclusion and independence which, in turn, helps to build a capacity for independent living.

All clients undertake an induction to the service, setting out clear boundaries and expectations. Each client is assigned a key support worker who provides an initial period of intense support whilst they settle into the accommodation and the service. Support workers help to build trust and confidence during a time of great need in our clients.

Outcome Star is used to work with clients to help identify their priority needs including health, welfare and substance issues, and an action plan is agreed between support worker and client to address those needs.

During the initial period of change and settlement, agreed outcomes are a shared responsibility. Our aim is to motivate and support our clients to make some necessary life changes and do things for themselves with ongoing support from the team, thus enabling them to find develop the ability to stand on their own two feet and take full accountability for themselves.

Experience confirms that support needs to be joined up to address complex needs, therefore partnership working is also a key part of our service. Regular reviews of the support plan take place; client’s needs and action plans are adjusted as they begin to address their issues on their journey into independent living.

Sometimes, the extent of a client’s full engagement with us can be short lived. But we don’t give up; we  give people many chances to make a difference with a hope that this time it will have an impact for longer.

After a period of stability we offer a range of learning and development opportunities.

Training: We support clients to get involved in internal and external training. Training can help to build confidence and self-esteem of our clients as well as life, practical and employability skills development.

Volunteering: Again we support our clients to join volunteer programmes both within Restart with our Maintenance team, and externally. The aim is to build on their employability skills including general house maintenance, decorating initiatives, gardening and engagement in a variety of community projects that improve local community facilities. This has the added benefit of helping to re-socialise those who have become somewhat anti-social outside of their own community in quite some time.

Move On Programmes: Our move on options are tailor-made to address the individual needs of our clients when considering independent living.