'I was "chuffed" when I heard I had gained a place at Rachel House as I had been living under a bridge before that.
I was pleased with my flat and moved in straight away. I contacted my family on a regular basis. Whilst living rough I continued to maintain a place on a training scheme.
I am in the process of looking for another training course as this has come to its natural end and I'm being supported through this by my support worker and by careers to change over.
Whilst at Rachel House my support worker has helped me to budget my money for food and electric and we have discussed my housing options and filled in a form for the housing list which I know I have to work towards at Rachel House.
Living at Rachel House I have to attend regular House Meetings and go to groupwork sessions on different stuff. I enjoyed doing the baking for the Big Bake and we raised £65 for Barnardos. I also attend other work and activities both at Rachel House and outside the service. I feel it gives me something to do and keeps me out of trouble!
Staff here have also organised some gym passes and swim passes for us to use at the Leisure Centre for free if we need to go and chill. We use these as a group.
Sometimes we have communal meals and pizza and video nights where we all get together as a group. This is good because we couldn't afford to do this only having a training allowance and staff join us and it feels like a big family atmosphere.'