Youth Homelessness is a complex social issue with those at risk difficult to identify at first. It can often stem from a young person being exposed to difficult social settings, family conflicts, to becoming less engaged in school activities. In the end, the young person faces unavoidable life patterns, and sees trapped in unsafe environments without someone to turn to. Youth homelessness can be challenging to tackle, but anything is possible to achieve with prompt intervention.

Following in the footsteps of the successful Geelong Project in Australia, Upstream Cymru begins with a simple survey completed by students aged 11-16 whilst in school. The survey focuses on a range of areas, allowing for a wide scope of data to be collected by the Upstream team and the respective school. Student wellbeing, resilience and engagement with education are among some of those core areas. Read our initial findings report here.

To date, more than 1200 surveys have been conducted across the seven schools partaking in the initial role out of the Upstream Cymru programme in Wales: the first and only country in Europe to invest in the proven prevention programme to date. 

The purpose of the Upstream Cymru is to prevent, reduce and identify the number of young people at risk of reaching a crisis point.

Click here to read our latest Upstream Cymru report.