The Changing Futures programme is a £64 million joint initiative by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK.
The fund is for local organisations to work in partnership to better support those who experience multiple disadvantage.
This will provide essential support and treatment for vulnerable adults facing a combination of homelessness, substance misuse, poor mental health, domestic abuse, or contact with the criminal justice system.
Many of the vulnerable adults who will be supported through the programme also experience physical ill-health and disability, entrenched disadvantage and trauma.
They often also experience difficulties in getting the coordinated support from local services that they need, which can lead to worsening problems such as increased reoffending and greater risk of rough sleeping and ill-health.
Stoke-on-Trent will take a ‘person-centred’ and ‘trauma-informed’ approach to tailor support to individuals and their needs. Changing Futures will transform how services operate by linking up support across areas such as health, employment, and drug misuse. This will make sure support services suit the needs of each individual, and benefit from the staff who have first-hand experience of issues such as homelessness or drug misuse.
