Making a House a Home : The House Project Evaluation

The Stoke-on-Trent House Project (HP) represents a new way of supporting care leavers to take control of their transitions to independent living, offering them greater involvement and choice in creating a long-term home after care. It created a housing company based on co-operative principles to enable young people to take a major role in finding, refurbishing and establishing their own home, alongside a tailored package of support. In doing so, it aimed to improve young people’s housing stability and satisfaction and, from that base, their wider post-care outcomes including participation in education, employment and training (EET), general wellbeing and integration through opportunities to develop greater autonomy and transferable skills. The evaluation included an exploration of the processes involved in setting up and operationalising the housing company and its early impact on the experiences and outcomes of young people within the co-operative as they transitioned from care.