Support Us

Thank you for choosing to support care leavers through NHP.

With your help, we can offer these young people a place they can call home.

Whilst lots of young people do well in care many don’t. Each year about 10,000 young people leave care and understandably struggle to live independently. Within 6-24 months of leaving care;

• one third of young care leavers are homeless;
• they are four times more likely to have mental health problems;
• they are five times more likely to self-harm;

Without a stable home and proper support it is not surprising they can’t sustain their education, training or employment.

Even when young people have been well cared for and supported, they are often ill prepared for living alone when they have to leave care from aged 16. They tell us that moving to independence and living alone in a property and area you haven’t had a choice in is daunting. Care leavers do this without the support of close family and at a much earlier age than the general population (average age of leaving home is 24) and it does not work for many. They have described to us their loneliness, fear and the feeling that they have been ‘dropped off a cliff.’

Our vision is to scale our services nationally, so that every young person leaving care has the option to draw on their own network of support to help them learn to live independently, in a home near their friends and in an area they choose.