From April 1st 2024, Launchpad started to manage two Reading Borough Council homelessness projects, providing 24 hour bespoke support, for those with a rough sleeping history, at The Caversham Road Pods and The Nova Project.
The aim of both projects is to assist entrenched, long term rough sleepers (including those with severe and multiple needs) with short term accommodation and intensive support to help them with their goals and gain stability.
Launchpad will provide support with a specific focus on supporting with mental ill-health, substance misuse, preventing re-offending and return to the streets.
More about each project
The Nova Project
The Nova Project is a specialist service for women, established in 2021 by Reading Borough Council, in response to an identified need. It provides a home for 10 multiply disadvantaged women in a gender and trauma-informed supported environment.
The home is a safe space for female residents to help them begin to recover from the experience of homelessness and to help them rebuild their lives until they are ready to move on.
As women experience homelessness differently from men – affected by violence, abuse and sexual harassment – there is a need for specialised, individual, gender-informed support to work through severe traumas such as domestic abuse which Launchpad staff will provide alongside partner agencies.
The Pods
The Pods are self-contained modular homes in Reading established in 2021, providing wrap around care for 40 people who have been found sleeping rough and have complex needs.
Clients can be housed for 2-3 years in the move on accommodation to give them the opportunity to rebuild their lives through longer-term housing stability, paired with the essential support they need to take the next step to break the cycle of rough sleeping.
At both projects, Launchpad support staff are on site 24/7. We will work with new and existing clients to settle them into their new accommodation and will then work intensively with them, providing client-led holistic wraparound support, in partnership with other relevant agencies.
Janine Breakspear, Head of Services at Launchpad, said: “Our staff and trustees are delighted that Launchpad have been awarded these projects. They are both a natural extension of the existing work we do, using the passion and expertise which we know has real impact and improves people’s lives.”
(stock photo used)