The Children & Families Project supports families with children who are living in temporary accommodation in Brighton & Hove.
Our Support Workers provide practical, trauma-informed support tailored to each family’s circumstances. We can work with a family for up to 16 weeks, helping them address immediate needs, understand their options and connect with local services.
Alongside our direct work with families, we are:
Developing accessible information packs for families living in temporary accommodation.
Bringing together professionals and organisations supporting families in temporary accommodation, helping them understand the support available locally and work more effectively together.
Raising awareness and delivering training about the experiences and needs of families living in temporary accommodation.
Working with Common Ambition on a design sprint that centres families’ lived experience and helps ensure our work is shaped by the people it is intended to support.
Every family’s circumstances are different, so we work with families to understand what matters most to them and tailor our support accordingly.
Support may include:
Helping families understand their current housing situation and the options available to them.
Helping families access essential furniture, household items and basic equipment, subject to need and availability.
Accompanying family members to appointments.
Checking benefit entitlements and connecting families with appropriate financial advice.
Connecting families with health, education, community and specialist support services.
Providing practical information and referring or signposting families to other organisations that can help.
We will always do our best to help families find the right source of support. However, we are unable to:
Provide legal advice or formal housing advocacy.
Influence housing decisions, housing allocations or waiting-list priorities.
Provide long-term casework beyond the agreed support period of up to 16 weeks.
Provide ongoing financial assistance.
Provide or arrange emergency accommodation.
If a family needs help that we cannot provide, we will try to connect them with a more appropriate service.
We currently accept referrals from professionals working with families, such as housing, health, education, social care and voluntary-sector professionals.
Referrals must be made with the family’s knowledge and consent.
To be eligible for support, a family must:
Have at least one child under the age of 18.
Be living in temporary accommodation in Brighton & Hove.
Need support that falls within the project’s offer, as outlined above.
Where demand is greater than the support we have available, we will prioritise families who have an immediate need that is not already being addressed by another service.
Meeting the referral criteria does not automatically guarantee that we will be able to offer support. We will consider each referral carefully and contact the referrer to discuss the next steps.
Please complete our referral form with the family’s consent:
Please provide relevant information about the family’s current circumstances, the support they need and any other services currently involved. This will help us assess whether our service is appropriate and avoid asking the family to repeat information unnecessarily.
If you have questions or would like to discuss whether a referral may be appropriate, please contact brighton@justlife.org.uk.
If you are a professional interested in our wider work with families in temporary accommodation, including:
Our information packs for families.
The Inter-Agency Working Group for Families in Temporary Accommodation.
Training about the needs and experiences of families living in temporary accommodation.
The Common Ambition design sprint.
Please contact jo@justlife.org.uk.
