- ATD Fourth World

ATD Fourth World’s Family Support Programme works alongside people facing challenges in areas such as housing, unemployment, health, benefits and lack of basic skills. For the past eighteen months, Martin Kalisa has been supporting Louise as she negotiated her way towards adulthood. Here is how he explains their journey together.

"Louise grew up in the care of the local authority. At eighteen, she left care and was housed in supported accommodation before moving to an independent flat outside of London. Social Services remained involved with her and in Spring 2009, just before Louise’s twenty-first birthday, I met her social worker to evaluate their work with her and to think about her future.

I challenged the social worker about the support that had been provided for Louise. I asked why Louise did not even have basic skills even though she was under the responsibility of the local authority. The social worker told me that they had provided Louise with the best support they could and that it was time for her to take some responsibility for her future.

The other major issue facing Louise at the beginning of last year was housing; she had accrued rent arrears and the housing trust was taking her to court to evict her. Louise was understandably stressed by this but Joanna Kennedy, from Zacchaeus 2000 Trust, agreed to support her in court.

I decided to go to the benefit office with Louise to ask for help with the rent arrears; they said that there was nothing they could do. We went back to explain the work of ATD Fourth World in supporting the most disadvantaged families and to plead Louise’s case a second time. Half an hour later they said, “We are going to pay the housing trust £1,200. We can’t do any more than that.” That money covered more than half of Louise’s rent arrears! We could not believe it; neither could Joanna. The housing trust received a cheque for £1,200 the next day.

This taught me that people do have the power to support families if they want to. We still do not know where the money came from but Louise would not have seen a penny of it if we had not gone back and insisted on it. And it is clear to me that Louise would not have been supported had she gone alone.

With half of her rent arrears thus paid off we went back to court and agreed on a payment plan that Louise is still keeping to; she pays her rent and a little more each month to slowly clear her arrears (which will take more than eight years)."

This is an edited extract of an article from Dignity, the journal of ATD Fourth World, which can be downloaded below.