Wayahead is a Bristol based voluntary organisation which provides housing and support to young people. Originally named East Bristol Youth Housing Association (EBYHA), Wayahead was started in 1982 by a group of professionals working with young people in the East Bristol area. At that time there was almost no accommodation with support for young people available in Bristol.

Word soon spread and most young people who came to the organisation were self-referrals, other referrals came from a wide range of statutory and voluntary agencies. In 1986 we developed a pioneering partnership with Bristol City Council Social Services Department to take over the management of a Knightstone owned eight bedded property. The house was primarily for young care leavers and provided a higher level of support than Wayahead’s other accommodation. 20 years later the house, which has provided exceptional support for numerous looked after and other vulnerable young people, is still integral to the relationship between the two organisations.

Wayahead have continued to develop partnerships with Solon, Knightstone and Bristol Churches Housing Associations and we manage both shared and self contained properties on their behalf. In 2005 we entered into the first 29 year direct lease for a Temporary Social Housing property with Bristol City council Neighbourhood and Housing services. We now have 5 such properties with at least one more in the pipeline. As demand increased and the level of need of homeless young people increased Wayahead grew to respond to this. During the 1980s Wayahead purchased their own properties to provide additional bed spaces. The organisation now has a total of 90 shared bed spaces and 40 self contained flats in ownership, leased or managed. This allows us to offer specialist accommodation in response to the demands of the applicants for our service; for example we have offered Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual, Kurdish, Somali men, Muslim women and women only houses.

Thanks to the introduction of the Supporting People funding stream we were able to expand the Direct Support Team to provide support to young people in Bed and Breakfast and tenancy sustainment support to young people in tenancies with other social housing providers and private landlords.

The organisation is now working with an increasing number of refugees and young people with more complex needs. Our client group is diverse, with at least 65 – 70% of our service users coming from Black or Minority Ethnic backgrounds.

Our team includes a Black and Minority Ethnic (Homelessness prevention) Outreach Worker, funded by Bristol City Council Neighbourhood and Housing Services in partnership with the office of the Deputy Prime Minister under Section 180 grant and the Safer Bristol’s drug intervention programme.

Wayahead plays a key role in a number of strategic groups within the city, looking at young people, homelessness, housing and support. These include the Youth Housing Strategy Group and Bristol Supported Housing Forum.

Wayahead now employ thirty people, including our own maintenance department, finance and administration sections, frontline staff and managers. Our recent rapid growth necessitated a move into larger premises. In 2005 we completed the purchase of Kingsley Hall in Bristol’s historic Old Market.

The new facilities provide a better working environment for our staff, greater space to work with young people, as well as a dedicated area for the benefit of our service users. This area will have internet access and will provide space for activities and training. The work in this space will be led by our Activities Participation Worker, and supported by other staff.

In addition to our new building we now own, lease and manage properties city wide, support homeless young people in Bed & Breakfast establishments and provide Floating Support to enable young people to sustain their tenancies with the Local Authority, RSLs and private landlords.

In view of these changes East Bristol Youth Housing was no longer appropriate and following a lengthy consultation period with service users, staff and board members we have chosen a new name: Wayahead Housing and Support for Young People.