PAL (Peer Advice Link)

PAL aims to help individuals make the transition from supported housing to independence.

The unique thing about St Mungo's PAL service is the way it is staffed - almost exclusively by volunteers with experience of moving on from support services themselves.

This has huge benefits in terms of being able to engage and establish a relationship quickly with clients. This also allows the volunteers themselves to gain valuable workplace experience, access a variety of training and re-enter the workplace.

In the last six months of 2010 seven PAL volunteers moved on to paid work, both within and outside the support sector.

We offer a remarkable degree of flexibility, providing support to a client when they need it; if someone feels they don't need our support when we first meet them, that's fine, we'll put their file on hold. If that person, or anyone else who ever lived in a St. Mungo's project, needs support a week, a month or two years in the future, we'll work with them again.

The Advice side of PAL is provided through home visits, a phone line, and a drop-in service. Volunteers help new tenants deal with repair issues, welfare benefits, housing benefit problems, applying for Social Fund and charitable grants, buying essential items cheaply, and other practical issues.

PAL volunteers also talk to our clients about their needs, goals and aspirations and help them build a support network in their own community.

The ultimate goal of the service is to help tenants integrate with the local community and to build up local support networks. Individuals who are isolated from friends, family and the community are often more vulnerable to becoming homeless again.

Update: PAL was shorlisted for a 2011 Housing Heroes award. The awards, supported by Inside Housing magazine and the Chartered Institute of Housing, were announced on 20 May 2011.

For more information or to enquire about volunteering with PAL, email:PAL@mungos.org or call freephone: 0800 021 7206.