BYHP supports young people to build independent lives, by helping them to gain life and work experiences which will help them to avoid homelessness and support themselves.

Charlie is 21 years old. From a young age she had witnessed her father emotionally and eventually physically abuse her mother, and had accepted this as usual in relationships.

At 17 she was referred to BYHP for mediation when her parents had asked her to leave because they did not agree with her choice of boyfriend. Our trained mediators helped Charlie and her parents better understand their relationships and find a way to treat each other with more consideration. Mediation was initially successful and Charlie stayed at home for a further 18 months, but when she was 19 her parents moved away and she found herself sleeping on friends’ floors. She came back to BYHP for assistance and we helped her stay with a Nightstop host for three nights while she arranged to borrow a deposit for a bedsit.

Once she was successfully housed, she began BYHP’s Unlocking Potential course to help her gain skills to find employment. Now our support worker, Virginia, is helping her to look for work and plan the next stage in her independence. We supported 230 young people last year across Oxfordshire by giving them advice and support to access housing, mediating between them and their families so they can stay at home, training them so they can gain work, and supporting them with complex issues such as alcohol use and domestic abuse.

Unfortunately BYHP urgently needs to raise £30,000 by the end of January 2012 to allow us continue to provide our much needed training and mediation services. We really need your help to continue this valuable work and help young people into the New Year and beyond to stay at home or learn skills which will help them find a job.

You’ll be helping us to help young people build successful and independent lives.

£2 could pay for one night’s toiletries for a young person staying overnight with a Nightstop volunteer.

£5 will pay for the travel fare to get a young person to emergency housing that night.

£10 could pay for refreshments in BYHP’s Drop In.

£50 could pay for a mediation visit between a young person and their parents to help them stay at home.You can donate online at www.byhp.org.uk or send a cheque to BYHP, 2 Chandos Close, Banbury, OX16 4TL (please indicate Gift Aid if you are a UK taxpayer). Thank you for your support this Christmas.