‘Best thing I’ve done’ – Young mother praises our supported accommodation scheme

Communities

A2Dominion resident Jordan, 22, provides an insight into how her life has turned around since moving into supported accommodation and explains why outside perceptions need to change.

Mother carrying child in playground

Jordan and her now 14-month-old son moved into one of our Young Parent schemes in Oxford in May 2023, and she is full of praise for the life changing support she’s received from colleagues.

The young mum previously struggled with her personal and family life, but is now looking forward to the future, including studying a leadership course at university.

She said: “Staff are pretty much here for absolutely anything. They’ve helped me with applications, they’ve helped me to start a university course - which is amazing.”

The Young Parents scheme in Oxford has been run by us since 2021 and has 10 units of accommodation, supporting young parents aged 16-24 and their children for up to two years.

Jordan said: “I come from a very unstable and unsafe environment and being offered to come here has been brilliant because mentally it has helped me so much and I think it’s made my connection to my son a hell of a lot stronger as well – which is brilliant because he’s absolutely amazing.”

She added: “I pretty much gave up with everything. Social services were the ones that said they’ve got places here, and I was like do you know what I need to sort my life out basically and coming here has honestly been the best thing I’ve done.”

Jordan said she would encourage anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation to give supported accommodation a chance and not to have any negative preconceptions.

She describes services like our supported accommodation as “insanely important” to the local community and that “places like this have a bit of a stereotype, but I have never been happier.”