This Christmas, we are raising funds to continue the art activities throughout 2024. We are also aiming to raise enough money to take residents on art days out.

If you can donate, all funds raised will go towards Pathways' art activities. Your donation could be spent in the following ways:

£5 - could buy new pencils, pens and paper for an art activity.

£20 - could pay for public transport for 5 residents to participate in community art activities.

£50 - could pay for art supplies for 1 month of activities.

£100 - could pay for multiple days out for residents to visit museums and art galleries.

Pathways to Independence provides supported housing for vulnerable, single homeless people with additional support needs in Kent and Medway. Our goal is to help people move beyond homelessness by providing them with the opportunities, skills and resilience to become self-reliant and self-supporting.

Due to negative past experiences and stigma, we find residents struggle with their identity and don't always see themselves in a positive light. By providing residents opportunities to explore their identity, they can move past their negative perceptions of themselves and focus more on their potential and ambitions. This is crucial to their recovery journey and one of the ways in which this is achieved is through art.

The Pathways' support team currently run in-house art sessions, which rotate every 8 weeks between our 4 projects. We have found these activities very successful, with many residents engaging in the sessions, socialising with other residents and enjoying creating their own artwork. Since participating in these activities, we have noticed an improvement in residents' confidence, self-esteem and sense of self.

About Pathways to Independence:

Pathways run three projects across its service sites, these projects provide a home, personal support, assistance with domestic and social skills, and advice on education and training for employment. Residents are placed in the most appropriate house, taking their preference, and required level of support into consideration. We aim to improve levels of self-esteem and confidence so that residents may move on to achieve a more positive and settled way of life in the community.

Pathways support particularly vulnerable people with a history of multiple and repeated trauma, PTSD and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) that fall outside the criteria for Community Mental Health Teams (CMHT) and GP support due to their complex needs and ongoing substance use. This can exacerbate residents’ mental ill-health and entrenched addictions, resulting in difficulty accessing the support interventions and move-on accommodation they need. We care, support, guide and engage openly and honestly, offering loyalty, trust, purpose, hope, and belief that a positive and settled way of life is achievable.

Our projects include:

Project 1 - Maidstone: 4 houses and 31 beds, providing accommodation throughout Kent for people, who have committed more serious offences and those whose crimes may be less serious but who nonetheless need a great deal of help and support.

Project 2 - Medway: 5 houses and 15 beds. This service is aimed at those homeless, in unsuitable accommodation or at immediate risk of homelessness. Those who also have a history of offending, i.e. must have been to prison or are currently under Probation (CRC or NPS) or Visor. Clients must have a housing-related support need.

Project 3 - Medway: 4 houses and 37 beds, providing accommodation and support to single homeless people in the Medway towns. This service also includes our Peer Mentoring Project and Rough Sleeper Project.

The Pathways team works through a person-centred and trauma-informed approach, nurturing trust and instilling newfound confidence so residents can begin to trust the support services offered. They go above and beyond in offering choice and control and developing self-esteem and life skills to enable positive move on, to live well and independently.

Across the charity, we also run a Peer Mentoring Project. This Project was launched in September 2021 and aims to engage people at high risk of overdose and/or may not be engaging with treatment services for substance misuse. All the Peer Mentors are volunteers who use their lived experience to improve PTI's clients' mental health and well-being.

One of the unique things about this service is it not only offers an alternative support provision for individuals who are homeless, recovering from homelessness, and/or challenging substance misuse, but it also generates opportunities for individuals who have previously been in this position. Some of our Peers have come from our service, and some of our current clients are also Peers. The Peer Mentoring volunteer role gives individuals with lived experience an opportunity to support someone else in a similar situation to theirs previously. Not only does this greatly benefit the individual receiving the support, but it also gives the peer mentor an opportunity to give back, giving them a sense of purpose. This level of responsibility is proven to prevent relapse rates, as it provides a space to focus their energy. The legacy of the Project is what makes it so successful. We expect some individuals supported through the P2P Project to become Peer Mentors themselves.

One of our greatest highlights in the last 12 months has been recruiting 2 ex-residents of Pathways into paid roles within the charity. This was made possible through our Peer Mentoring Project. One of the roles taken on is a Managerial role within the service. The person who now has this role was formerly street homeless and suffered from mental health and drug misuse issues. Their development and success are true representations of the impact of Pathways' work; above all, this is an excellent achievement for the individual concerned.

Pathways provide significant support to homeless populations in Kent, making it a better place to live for all. We have supported hundreds of individuals over the years and continue to grow and adapt our services to keep up with demands and changing needs. We do not have a large staffing team at Pathways, and for a small group of people, they achieve a lot and make a real difference in people’s lives.