Welcome
WHO WE ARE
Families & Community Support Service (FCSS) exists to link individuals, families, and the community to provide support for individuals and families to access health, social care, housing options, employment, further education, vocational/ training, welfare benefits, support for disabled people; particularly, those with long term conditions, such as mental health problems and learning disabilities.
We give a hand to individuals and families who for example due to disability, illness, social exclusion and other challenges may find it difficult to express their views, wishes and feelings or get the support they need. Our objective is to empower these vulnerable individuals and families to have a voice or their voices heard and make a real difference and take control over their lives. We can do this by speaking for them when they cannot and support them to speak for themselves when they can do so. All our advocacy, information and advice services we provide are free, independent and confidential. We offer additional support for young women/ girls from (BAME) communities faced with domestic violence (DV) and adults who require care and support needs and experiencing/ at risk of abuse or neglect, and due to their care and support needs are unable to protect themselves.
We promote Equality, Diversity and Inclusion through Advocacy and empowerment for and behalf of vulnerable individuals and families suffering or likely to be at risk of suffering discrimination in our community especially on the grounds of race, age, disability, gender or sexual orientation e.g. LGBTQ+. We aim to increase the confidence of individuals and families by empowering, supporting them to achieve and sustain equality and empowerment.
All our advocacy, information, and advice services we provide are free, independent and confidential.
OUR MISSION
We are a strong community with a shared vision of promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion by providing advocacy, campaign for policy change, empowerment, and support victims who are at risk or likely to be at risk suffering discrimination. We work closely with a range of partners to achieve our mission, ensuring everyone has access to life’s essentials.
We advocate and provide practical advice and emotional support whenever people need them most.
We support our clients to prevent them from becoming homeless and sustain their existing tenancies.
We build relationships with the community to increase awareness and understanding of homelessness and its impact and empathize with individuals who experience it.
OUR VISION
Not to stop until we achieve a society where all people enjoy equal opportunity, equal rights, justice, and fairness.
OUR VALUES
Our values are our core principles, the qualities, and beliefs that drive all of our work and service we offer to the community and continue to put people at the heart of everything we do.
We are professionals committed to working in confidential and person-centred approach. We empower people to develop confidence and stand up for their rights, open and fair in our approach; we have positive impact and make difference in the community.
WHAT WE DO
OUR SERVICES
SUPPORTED HOUSING SCHEMES
Families & Community Support Service (FCSS) offer a range of housing options for adult Care leavers both temporary and permanent and offer additional low to medium support need to individuals. We work in partnership with local authorities, the Greater London Authority, social services, private property owners/ landlords, Estate Agents, and other charity organisations. Residents are mostly referred by the Local Authorities (LA), Social Services and other charity organisations following an assessment. Our supported accommodation is fully furnished, aims to support our residents in maintaining their tenancies at the schemes, to enable independence in the future and to break the cycle of homelessness. We offer a variety of individual support at our schemes including:
- Personal development work
- Confidence building and relationship support
- Benefits advise, support with managing finances and other support with financial entitlements
- Debt reduction and income maximisation
- Advice on finding employment, education, training and vocational
- Life skills and support networks.
Our “Life skills” plans include practical skills such as healthy eating, cooking, cleaning, shopping, budgeting, relationship skills and lifestyle skills (e.g. physical exercise, contraception, alcohol, and drugs free lifestyle) and any aspect that are key to successful transitions to independent living.
Equality | Equal opportunity
Equal rights | Equity | Justice
“Levelling the playing field” for everyone
ADVOCACY
Families and Community Support Service (FCSS) support individuals and families to:
- access health, social care, housing, employment, further education, vocational/ training, welfare benefits, care and support for disabled people; particularly, those with long term conditions, such as mental health problems and learning disabilities.
- Understand the criminal justice system, Empower individuals and families in the community
- Have a bigger voice that can influence and affect change and policy, acquire assistance in; completing forms, writing letters and making telephone calls to relevant agencies for support.
Our advice service is designed to assist homeless; families dealing with their daily living challenge e.g. evictions, benefits decisions, debt, violence, unemployment, poverty, lack of opportunity and separation. Our trained staff and volunteers workers provide a range of specialist advice on welfare rights, housing/ housing benefits or council tax, Discretionary Housing Payments, education, women and children’s rights, etc. When necessary, some clients are referred or signpost for additional support via our network of partners within the local community. Our advocacy and advice service provision has enabled families to receive full entitlement to benefits and successfully challenge The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)’S benefits decisions through appeal to the tribunal and successfully improved clients’ living conditions.
Where required, Advice workers and volunteers can organize (Home visits) where Housing Assessments are carried out which includes home Health and Safety checks, etc. and actions against landlords taking in order to address the housing needs of homeless families.
We aim at:
- Equality – To “Level the playing field” for everyone to have equal opportunity, equal rights, equity and justice.
- Helping individuals develop independence, strengthen coping skills and become more resistant to crisis.
- build awareness of social needs
- support individuals in developing skills to have healthy relationships with others
- help individuals and communities assume responsibility for decisions and actions that affect them
- provide supports that help people participate in the community
- help communities identify their social needs and develop responses
- promote, encourage and support volunteer work in the community
- inform the community/ public about services available
- support children and their families’ for social development
- help families enrich and strengthen family life and function more effectively in their environment
- provides training for individual advocates within the voluntary role or paid employment.
STUDENT PLACEMENTS
Families & Community Support Service also work in partnership with universities by offering work-related placements experience to Social Work and Health and Social Care students. This provides students with first-hand practical experience of their programme.
OUR PARTNERS
