I started coming to Justlife more than a year ago, before the centre opened. One of the guys I live with told me about it, about the free food and nice people, so I came along.

Now the centre is open it is great. I come a few times a week and have got involved in the IT course, art, gardening, football and cooking. I also still love coming to the drop in meals on a Monaday and Friday, the food is great. All the activities give you something to do and a purpose in your day. When I get my life sorted out I want to work with art or in catering so its important that I keep busy and motivated.

The staff are great, I feel like Matt is a friend more than anything. I know that if stuff is rubbish I can always come and talk to the people here and they will listen and help. If Justlife wasn’t here I would just be sitting in my flat all day doing nothing.

Basically Justlife is a really good place with really good help and it is in just the right place.

(Pic: Mugs painted by Kyle and others in the art workshop)

They met with staff, volunteers and service users and spent time talking to Garry, a volunteer and service user, who had the opportunity to tell his story and how Justlife has had a positive impact on his life. They braved the cold to see the gardening workshop in action and chat to the participants.

Both Dharmendra and Helen were positive about our work and excited to visit the project.

Justlife has just completed the first of a three year grant from the Big Lottery Fund.

About 3 months ago, we found a space in supported housing for Tim, helped him make this transition and continued to support him and address his issues. Last week Tim came to Justlife pleased that he had secured a tenancy with a local housing association. This was an exciting opportunity, but he was only given 5 days notice to move on from furnished and supported housing into the new empty flat. With no means of transport, no furniture and very little money the hope of him being able to move on by himself was slim. This highlighted to us a gap in the system. Tim was doing so well and this stressful situation could have pushed him back to the start.

Justlife stepped in to make his home move possible. Matt Lloyd, Justlife project worker took a day to move Tim’s possessions and collect free and low cost household items from Mustard Tree, The Wesley Project and other charities around the city. Tim is a recovering alcoholic and his first port of call in this sudden and difficult circumstance would have been the bottle, but instead Tim is now settling into his new home well and extremely grateful for the help that we gave.

Tim’s exact words were: “I’d be on my arse and given up if it wasn’t for you.”

But, we cannot do this for every client. There is a gap in the system and although we will try to help service users make this transition wherever possible, we do not have the capacity to do this every time.

Justlife is putting together Tim’s story as a case study, which can be used to address this problem with the housing and homelessness sector.

* Name changed

1. Provide help to individuals and families with acute support needs including alcohol & drug dependency.
2. Help individuals to access relevant professional services including housing, healthcare and employment.
3. Initiate and co-ordinate community transformation and regeneration in areas of deprivation
4. Research, design and deliver models of recovery which will empower individuals to find their way back into society, independent living and employment 

We are seeking to appoint a high calibre individual to head up a new housing project in east Manchester. The private rented sector (PRS) access scheme assists those in housing need to access PRS accommodation in order to create long term sustainable tenancies.  The scheme acts as broker between people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness and good quality landlords, as guarantor to reduce the financial risk to landlords and connects new tenants with local support services.

Key to the scheme’s success will be publicising the scheme and building relationships with PRS landlords, and liaising with Housing Benefit departments and other key stakeholders in order to deliver an effective service.

The appointed person will report directly to the Managing Director for all matters pertaining to the Project. They will need to demonstrate a proven track record in project management, leadership, exceptional administration skills and a depth of understanding of the issues faced by vulnerable adults in inner city communities. Our ideal candidate will combine a high level of administrative skill with professional housing or social work qualification and leadership qualities.

The successful applicant will be required to complete an enhanced CRB check.

Click here for a detailed job description and person specification

Hours: Full time

Term: 1 year contract (with view to extend)

Salary: Pay band 6: £22,730 – £26,780

Closing Date: Monday 5^th March 2012

Selection Evening: Tuesday 13^th March

Start Date: March/April 2012

For more information about the role a person specification and job description can be downloaded from this site.  If you’re interested in applying please email your CV to gary@justlife.org.uk

Justlife Foundation welcomes applications from all sectors of the community. A copy of our equal opportunities policy is available on request.

This week Billy came to the Justlife Job Club with his friend and he was really pleased that he could leave with a CV that he could give out to employers. Last Thursday Adal brought along Maik, who enjoyed the computer workshop and has since been back to the Job Club and for a drop in session.

We are always happy to get referrals from other services and organisations, but it is really satisfying to see the very people we are aiming to help, recommend our support and services to others.

Service users are making real progress with computers. In fact, even this news update is being written by Adal, a service user at Justlife.

Adal, said: “Today we went on a short walk, so we could take some photos and learn about uploading them and putting them on the computer. We took lots of pictures at the Moravian Settlement, a place near to Justlife, and then came back and put them on facebook. It was very enjoyable and made me happy. It has been a good day.”

Click here for all the pictures.

The issue of empty properties coupled with a growing number homeless and vulnerable housed people has recently been brought to light by the TV series ‘The Great British Property Scandal.‘ It is estimated that across England there are 720,000 empty homes, 279,000 of which have been vacant for over 6 months.

Talks with Manchester City Council along with other partners and potential investors will hopefully result in proposal addressing a proportion of the 51,000 empty homes in Greater Manchester.

Statistics from emptyhomes.com (November 2011)

Working with lead partner, Local Space and John Thompson and Partners (architects and urbanists), we engaged the community in two days of dialogue creating a new vision for the community. Justlife will play an ongoing role in the Costal Space project, exploring the impact and potential benefits of the project to the residents.

The consultation was extremely successful and enabled us to build bridges with local service providers and other stakeholders.

Gary and Alastair will be running the Brighton Marathon on Sunday 15th April, whilst Alex, Dan and Matt are staying local to run the Manchester marathon on 29th April.

If you would like to get involved and run to raise money for Justlife then please do get in touch –  whether you want to participate in a 5K, 10k, half-marathon or run a whole marathon, we would love you to run for us. Every mile counts…

Details of how to sponsor our runners will follow in the coming weeks.

Since opening the centre in March 2011 we have helped a number of service users apply for jobs, create CVs and practice for interviews on an ad-hoc basis. Through our support and encouragement as well as their determination and hard work, many of these people have secured employment or are still positive about looking for work.

The work club provides these people and newcomers with regular opportunity to prepare and apply for work in a safe and friendly environment. The sessions will help people to build confidence, make CVs, understand and fill in application forms, write covering letters, practice for interviews and learn different jobsearch techniques.

One job club attendee said: “I feel safe at Justlife. The staff are really supportive and encouraging and I know that they want the best for me. They help me feel confident that I can achieve and get a job that I will like.”

We are currently applying for funding for resources and equipment for the work club, including new computers and packs.

For more information on the Work Club, please contact Alex at Justlife.