Leah* shares her story of overcoming youth homelessness and how she’s looking forward to studying to be a mental health nurse:
I’m Leah and I’m 20 years old. I grew up enjoying the outdoors, Sea Cadets and socialising but a significant family breakdown during the Covid pandemic led to me experiencing homelessness.
I sofa surfed with friends for a month before finding my local EveryYouth charity, Roundabout.
I lived in supported accommodation for around a year, where I had my own room but shared a kitchen with others. I was trying to finish my A-Levels but it was difficult to get a good night’s sleep and I was no thinking clearly or in the right place.
Thanks to EveryYouth Employed, I was supported to pursue my goal of studying to become a mental health nurse. I am starting the course in September.
For example, I lost my GCSE certificates which I needed to apply for university, so the EveryYouth bursary paid for these to be sent to me. It also covered the cost of my study books and the UCAS fee.
Roundabout staff also carried out practise interviews with me and gave me feedback afterwards. Staff helped me prepare for my university interview and attended the interview with me. This helped to give me confidence and helped me to remember all the right information. It was nice to have someone to talk to throughout the process and I didn’t have to worry about finances. Without their help, I wouldn’t be as prepared as I am now to start university.
I’m interested in mental health because I like connecting with people and they end up opening up to me. While I stayed in supported accommodation I met a lot of people dealing with mental health problems and I have always been interested in psychology. I was also diagnosed with ADHD when I was 18 years old. Often teachers and adults thought anger as a result of my PTSD was the underlying issue for some of my behaviour, but now I know it was also related to my ADHD.
I’m interested in specialising in children’s mental health and forensics, and supporting children who have committed a crime due to a mental health condition. I feel like it’s not spoken about much and there aren’t as many mental health services for children as there are for adults.
I’m hopeful for the future and proud of what I have achieved. My relationship with my family is not perfect but it has improved. I have moved out of supported accommodation and live independently. I would love to live in a bungalow one day and own more than one dog.
My advice to other people in a similar situation would be not to give up. Do your research because there are lots of supported accommodation options out there.
Find out more about our EveryYouth Employed programme.
*Name has been changed.
