What we do
Each of our service teams provides targeted and assertive support for people who have complex needs and live in Oxfordshire. Each team has specific aims, purposes and activities. They also share resources and collaborate to provide the core services described on this page.
Advocacy
One of our key activities is to advocate on behalf of our clients. For example, we speak on their behalf in court, liaise with supported housing project to secure accommodation for clients and help tackle harassment issues.
Advice and information
Because our work covers so many areas, we have extensive knowledge of all the services and agencies operating in Oxford. We share this knowledge with clients, families and carers, and peers.
Coordination and connection
People who have complex needs typically use a disproportionate amount of emergency services because they are not connected to the services they need. Efforts by agencies are often uncoordinated and temporary, and therefore tend to be ineffective in the long term. We help clients make sense of the wide range of agencies that offer relevant services. We arrange links with services such as GPs and other health professionals, employment advisors and solicitors. We also arrange case conferences and connect agencies that were unaware of each other's involvement with a particular client.
Emotional support
Many of our clients have experienced traumatic childhoods, and have difficulty forming and sustaining relationships. The quality of the therapeutic relationships we develop with clients is the key to our success. Often, we are the first trusted, reliable and continuous relationship a client has experienced.
Our approach is based on mutual respect. We support clients in learning to be reflective about their behaviour and help them recognise the effects of their actions, which in turn enables them to begin to make measurable changes in their lives. Through their experience of the therapeutic relationship, clients learn to believe they are important and deserve to have aspirations for their lives.
Outreach
Most of our work is based on targeted outreach. We spend time building knowledge of vulnerable people's routines; searching people out to begin engagement processes; and providing client support meetings in cafés or other venues around Oxford City. The flexibility of our approach provides us with the freedom to break down the barriers that typically prevent or discourage people with complex needs from engaging with the services they need. Our friendly, approachable service has procedures in place to ensure we can work with the riskiest client groups.
Practical help
We help clients to meet their basic needs, for example providing information about housing, liaising with Thames Valley Police and solicitors, accompanying clients to appointments, and helping clients to manage their benefits, bills and debts.