Homeless Link is the national membership charity for frontline homelessness organisations, and its annual awards recognise the innovative and impactful work happening across the sector to support people experiencing homelessness and rough sleeping.
The organisations won the Successful Partnerships Award for the Upstream UK Partnership chaired by Llamau, which has established a shared model of youth homelessness prevention, grounded in strong evidence collection and delivered consistently across the UK.
Using a universal, school-based screening approach, Upstream UK identifies hidden risk early, giving young people a safe way to share what is happening in their lives and enabling support to be put in place before crisis occurs. In just over four years, the programme has grown from a single school in Wales to 37 schools across the UK.
Across these schools, 98% of young people who received support remained safely at home, while 85% of families achieved their personal wellbeing goals, including better communication, less conflict, and stronger relationships. Together, these results highlight the impact of early, relationship-centred intervention delivered through strong partnership working.
The Upstream UK Partnership was selected from 121 entries to the Excellence Awards across the five categories, 33 of which were shortlisted. The organisations will be able use the award to assist in building further partnerships and securing funding, while raising the profile of their work among key stakeholders through Homeless Link.
The judging panel, composed of experts from across the homelessness sector, commended the partnership for its close engagement with the education sector and for producing an intervention model that could be groundbreaking nationally.
Yvonne Connelly, Llamau Operations Director and Chair of Upstream UK explained:
"This award is recognition of what is possible when organisations work together around a shared commitment to end youth homelessness. Upstream UK is helping shift the focus away from crisis response to earlier, targeted intervention, giving young people and their families support before problems escalate.”
Rick Henderson, Chief Executive of Homeless Link, added:
“Homeless Link’s annual Excellence Awards highlight the pioneering and impactful work happening countrywide to ensure that everyone has a place to call home and the support to keep it. At a time when organisations are helping growing numbers of people with increasingly complex needs, while under significant financial pressure, it is vital to recognise their exceptional efforts and raise their profile with partners and funders.
The Upstream UK Partnership is providing an invaluable model of youth homelessness prevention, which identifies risk early and creates action long before a young person reaches crisis. We congratulate Llamau, Centrepoint, The Rock Trust and MACS NI on receiving this award.”
For a full list of award winners, click here.
