Training hub teaches care leavers practical skills

Practical courses for care leavers are being trialled at the Life Skills hub

Daveena Patel says she is dreading moving into her own place for the first time.

After years in foster care and shared accommodation, she is taking part in a pilot project designed to help care leavers "navigate adulthood" without families or social workers to support them.

The 22-year-old is learning practical skills - such as painting and putting up shelves - in a "simulated home environment" in Nottingham.

Organiser Terry Galloway says the facility is unique and hopes the project will be able to protect young care leavers from homelessness and equip them with skills to live on their own.

The facility is made up of pods that resemble parts of a home or garden

Plumbing and how to pay household bills are among the courses being trialled at the Life Skills hub, off Carlton Road.

The hub, made up of pods that resemble parts of a home or garden, is run by Norman Galloway Homes, a community interest company that houses about 60 care leavers in Nottingham.

Terry believes the hub is the only practical training facility of its kind for care leavers.

In addition to the pods, a corridor has been converted into a potting shed where care leavers can learn how to grow plants and read electricity meters.

There is also a bathroom where they can practice unblocking sinks and changing taps.

Daveena Patel says moving into her own home will be daunting

Daveena and her sister, Bhavnisha, spent over a decade in foster homes before moving into university accommodation in Leicester and Nottingham.

Daveena now lives at an activity centre in Lichfield, Staffordshire, where she is training to be an instructor, but says she is daunted by the prospect of moving on and the "lack of support".

She adds: "I'm probably going to have to ask loads of people that aren't my family to help, and I feel like a burden.

"You're like on a ship by yourself thinking 'how the hell do I keep on going?' so having services like this is extraordinary."

There is laughter as they gain confidence and Bhavnisha, 21, says she enjoyed getting to know other members of the group.

"It's been really fun and it creates a sense of home and family that we don't usually have in our lives," she adds.

Hope Stead left a foster placement when she was 16

In the next pod, Hope Stead is using a roller to paint the ceiling.

The 28-year-old spent much of her childhood in foster homes in Rutland, where she now acts as a personal adviser to young people in the care system.

She says the training hub would have been "so useful" when she left a foster placement at just 16 and was allocated a house in Oakham.

Hope adds: "All these people just wanted to be my friend, there was a big party, the house got trashed.

"I then very quickly got kicked out of my first home.

"I would have probably managed my first home correctly and not found myself in a situation of not having anywhere to live."

Terry Galloway hopes the project can prevent care leavers from becoming homeless

Terry says: "Before they can get social housing, they have to demonstrate that they are going to sustain their tenancies.

"To be able to do that they have be able to paint, to decorate, to change a fuse, to manage their energy bills, and that's what we're going to teach here."

He also hopes to be able to offer the practical classes to young people leaving care across Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, as well as online courses nationally.

Bhavnisha says: "It's going to make it so easy when I get a place of my own, just to fix stuff."

Hope agrees and adds: "I think being connected with other care experienced young people as well is a really nice experience."