Steve is a Community Homes Support Worker within St Martins. He has been in this role for the past 3 years.
In his role, he directly supports residents in the St Martins ‘move-on’ accommodation in Norwich. Residents can stay in these properties for up to two years, depending on their own individual situation.
Team members such as Steve help residents move into more permanent housing, such as local authority & private renting, by helping with rent arrears, finances, giving advice, and just having a chat if they need support. He will also go along to appointments with residents if they need assistance.
At the start of his day, he checks his emails to get updates & information he may need for the day ahead.
After this, he conducts welfare checks & one-on-one support sessions. Most of the properties are in walking distance to the office, so he gets lots of steps in throughout the day. Community Homes properties are usually checked 2 to 3 times a week, depending on the amount of support that residents need. However, there is always someone available if they need assistance or support.
During their support sessions, residents and their support workers go over their support plan which includes areas such as mental health, physical health, alcohol & substance use, good use of time, finances & hobbies. Certain aspects will be talked about at specific meetings, depending what is going on in the resident’s life at that time.
After each meeting, Steve updates the support plans with what they spoke about and any actions that may need to take place, for example, an appointment he booked with a resident for later in the week.
Whilst out on shift with Steve, we visited one of the people Steve supports for his one-on-one session. This resident is in recovery and is doing very well and is currently on the waiting list for housing.
‘Living at St Martins has changed my life for the better. I haven’t been this in control of myself since I was 19 years old. He is not just a support worker; he is like a friend.’
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