Being a Nightstop host

"My work with foster parents brings me into contact with young people in crisis, and having a spare room myself I was beginning to get a niggling feeling that I should be doing something more useful with it than storing the ironing board.

Then I saw a double page spread in the local paper about Depaul Nightstop UK and the service they provide to young homeless people in my area, most of whom have nowhere to go after a big falling out at home. I thought that I was too young but I was certainly never made to feel that way by the Nightstop staff.  I did the training, had a couple of visits to check out my home and had a CRB check...and then I had my first young person come and stay.

I was nervous, but reckoned that my guest would be much more nervous than me, and would almost certainly have other worries. As soon as she arrived I knew everything was going to be OK. It was completely and utterly fine and since that first time I haven't looked back.

I have so many really personal anecdotes from all the young women who have stayed with me - I really think I will remember them all. One young lady who stayed with me recently told me that she spent her last £8 on a book, even though she hadn't eaten and knew she needed to top up her phone- because it would last longer and would give her a place to escape to.  One young lady came to me after spending all night riding night buses, and one guest asked me to adopt her!

When I started Nightstopping my parents and some of my friends thought I was completely mad. They assumed that things would get stolen, broken, and that I would be taken advantage of; but nothing could be further from the truth. If I'm honest I expect that sooner or later there will be an occasion where Nightstop isn't so straightforward, but so far I haven't needed to use the on-call phone number, and there have been absolutely no 'emergencies' whatsoever. 

I actually think that being a Nightstop host is a privilege. I always felt that because I was quite young, and don't have much money I couldn't really make much of a difference to people, but having someone in your home is the most incredibly open thing you can do, and giving them some respite from being at home, even for just a couple of days, can make all the difference to them."