In 1985 local churches in Leeds looked at how to respond to the recent Archbishop of Canterbury's report 'Faith In The City'. Advice centre volunteers were concerned that they had often not been able to help when 16 '25 year olds had needed somewhere to sleep for the night. On many occasions young people had been forced to sleep rough due to the shortage of emergency accommodation in the city.
The idea that developed in response became known as 'Nightstop' - one night at a time emergency accommodation in the homes of trained volunteers. Young people would then be signposted to 'follow up' agencies to address their longer term housing and support needs. Barnado's Church and Community Action worked with local people to develop this Leeds Nightstop scheme which became operational in October 1987.
In January 1992 the BBC broadcast a television documentary as part of their Panorama series - 'Entertaining Angels' - the story of Leeds Nightstop. This triggered interest all over the country and within two years the number of local Nightstop schemes had grown to ten. This included Bradford Nightstop who, alongside many of the other schemes established at this time, also developed the support available between projects at a national level.
The Bradford Steering Group was also set up in 1992. This group of local people concerned about homelessness was drawn from across the district and included people affiliated to various Christian denominations. A social work student who was placed with the Barnado's Church and Neighbourhood Action team supported this Steering Group. Their first task was to research the need for a Nightstop in the Bradford District. This involved visiting a number of different projects that worked in this area and they established that there was a need for a Nightstop in Bradford.
They produced a report called "Better to Light a Candle" which paved the way to secure funding to develop the project. Bradford Nightstop was registered as a charity and the Steering group became the Management Committee once funding was secured to recruit staff. In June 1993 two members of staff were appointed and worked from a small office in a garage - behind the home of Management Committee members.
The staff produced a Volunteer Handbook, which included working alongside the Committee to formulate policies and procedure. The first of many batches of potential hosts and telephone contact people were visited and trained. Whilst before they began volunteering references and police checks were organised. Meanwhile links were established with other organisations to ensure that there was a number of points from where young people could be referred and where they could receive follow up support.
Bradford Nightstop was first open for referrals on October 11th 1993 and soon after the first young person was hosted by Bradford Nightstop. From the start young people were very positive about their experience on Bradford Nightstop. Gradually the number of referrals increased as young people and agencies increased their knowledge of and trust in Bradford Nightstop.
From these early days Bradford Nightstop has been committed to awareness raising and campaigning as well as delivering a service. This has included some high profile events, which have involved MP's, local Councillors and the Government's Social Exclusion Unit. Talks and presentations have also been regularly taken to various groups, e.g. Neighbourhood Forums, Churches, Women's groups, Rotary; to increase awareness of youth homelessness amongst the general public. In 1998 three year funding was granted to develop Preventative Educational Work around housing and homelessness issues with young people. At the same time new area work was developed in Keighley, Great Horton, Bowling and Toller wards.
In 2006 a new partnership was set up with the City Centre Project which enabled a young person to be offered a bed in their emergency accommodation if there was no suitable host available. Around the same time Volunteer Drivers were recruited and young people were offered safe spaces to wait as a result of successful partnership working with the Youth Service.
In 2008 the project had almost taken 10 000 referrals of homeless young people who needed to use Nightstop. Also Bradford Nightstop had made major inroads through it's new education funding. In the first year of three year funding almost two thousand two hundred 13 to 25 year olds had experienced Bradford Nightstop's preventative housing and homelessness education work. Bradford Nightstop is still one of the busiest schemes in the country and there were over 700 referrals from 2007/8.
From the early days in the garage to now - Bradford Nightstop has clearly developed through rising to new challenges and ideas. The commitment by local people to young people in their District and their passion to tackle youth homelessness has without a doubt made an impact.
