A trainee on the Xtreme Character Challenge

Ben’s Story

A Home & Community for Young Care Leavers

In 2023, we transformed a derelict pub in Gateshead into a community hub.

Ben moved in a few months later. He was adopted aged 1 but his relationship with his adopted parents broke down just after his 17th birthday. In one year, Ben was moved 20 times. He says, “not many housing providers could deal with my mental health”, which included suicide attempts, self-harm, and overdoses.

His mental health has begun to improve, and he hasn’t overdosed. Ben puts this down to his flat, Handcrafted community and support worker, Neil.

“He’ll go one step further than everyone else… he has had some lived experience, so understands.”

Ben is starting woodwork sessions, and completed the ‘Xtreme Character Challenge’ with us, climbing three Scottish mountains in 72 hours.

Testimonials

There are countless challenges and barriers between our Fairchance service users and a healthy, productive and satisfying life.

We often use the term ‘chaotic lifestyle’ to describe the multitude of issues they face, and we contrast this lifestyle with an ideal that is secure, positive, stable and fulfilling. Often people looking in on the lifestyles of our service users find them intimidating, disorientating and full of risk – it should be no surprise that the same is true the other way around. For our service users who are looking into employment, education and stable accommodation, what they often see is a very unfamiliar culture and environment that they are unable to navigate.

Handcrafted helps to bridge this gap. It’s a middle ground between work and leisure where our service users are building confidence, self-esteem, working relationships, responsibilities, a sense of achievement. As a natural consequence of this and armed with the skills necessary to make this transition our service users are developing goals and ambitions and making plans for the futures that they are beginning to see as a reality for themselves.

Joe K, Fair Chance Project, Oasis Aquila Housing