Didcot retreat for teenage mums threatened by cuts (From Oxford Mail)

Didcot retreat for teenage mums threatened by cuts

5:00pm Friday 10th September 2010 in

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GOVERNMENT funding cuts have left a safe haven for homeless teenage mums threatened with closure.

The Didcot home, which has been relied on by young mothers for more than 25 years, is one of 28 run by charity LIFE that supports women.

But at the end of the month it will lose its funding under cuts made by the last Government.

The home now needs to raise £43,000 a year to stay open.

Support worker Clare Dickens’ working hours have already been cut back, and the charity is appealing for volunteers to help run the centre.

She said: “We will not be able to carry on running the home as it is without funding and without volunteers. Closing down is the last resort.”

However, residents have vowed to fight its closure. They are holding a fundraising fête at the South Didcot Children’s Centre, in Hillary Drive, tomorrow.

Up to six mums, aged 16-25, stay at the three-bedroom house each year.

They learn vital childcare skills and money management, and are helped to find a place of their own after six months.

Resident Amy Churchward, 19, who moved out of her crowded Didcot home with Phoebe, eight months in February, said: “If it were not for this place, I would either be at home or homeless.

“It would have been too much for me to have gone straight into a place of my own. It would have been really stressful, learning all these new things, having to deal with a new house and learning how to bring up a baby.

“Without the LIFE House, there would be a lot more girls with post-natal depression. It would be too much to cope with.”And Jen McGuigan, 17, whose son Jayden is three months old, added: “I feel far more independent here, where I am not relying on my mum or other people the whole time.

“Without it, I would feel scared. I would probably be homeless, and I would not be able to cope.”

The Department for Communities and Local Government cut Oxfordshire’s Supporting People grant, which funds housing schemes for vulnerable people, from £17.9m two years ago, to £13.8m by 2013.

Tomorrow’s fête takes place at the South Didcot Children’s Centre, opposite Didcot Wave, from 12pm to 3pm.

To donate to the jumble sale call 01235 511444, and to find out about volunteering at LIFE House call Elaine Hall on 07789 744748.