Our initiatives respond to the needs and voices of young people.  These include:

• Supported lodgings: In this model young people (16-23) are accommodated within the homes of families, individuals, couples who have a spare room and a desire to make a difference in the lives of young people. Concrete Rose is responsible for thoroughly vetting hosts (including application form, home visits, home risk assessment, enhanced DBS and approval via an independent panel) and providing significant wrap-around support (including 24/7 on-call support, comprehensive training, and regular supervision). Young people are supported through weekly one-to-one sessions with a local professional youth worker and access to therapeutic support and mentoring.

• Student mentoring: In partnership with the Widening Participation Team at Cambridge University, (and in response to student voices), we deliver a mentoring scheme for students who are care-experienced and/or estranged from family. Mentors act in a voluntary capacity providing pastoral care, support, advice and guidance to students via one-to-one sessions

We recently launched our five-year strategic plan (2024-2029). As well as wanting to continue to expand our supported lodgings and mentoring initiatives we are also looking to expand our ‘offer’ to comprehensively meet the needs on the ground and increase our financial sustainability:

• Bespoke semi-independent accommodation: We intend to design, develop and build a pioneering, field-leading and scalable model of semi-independent (multiple-occupancy) accommodation for young people. From the outset, this will be shaped by the voices of young people and ‘experts by experience’ with our trauma-informed therapeutic approach embedded into the fabric and function of the built space, alongside a lifelong offer of ongoing support and connection ensuring we avoids the pitfalls of hostel-type environments. (Find out more here: www.concreterose.co.uk/accommodation.)

• ‘Stable home’ initiative: We want to launch our ‘Stable home’ initiative whereby existing, or prospective, foster carers can access suitable accommodation to begin, or expand, their fostering offer via a shared ownership scheme.

• Financial sustainability: We will continue to navigate a path towards financial sustainability through increased number of ‘commissioned places’, long-term partnership agreements with local universities and the development of additional income generating activities. As a part of this we will commission a feasibility study into establishing a new, high-yield, social enterprise.

You can read our full strategic plan here.

The roots of Concrete Rose Collective CIC can be traced back long before its establishment as a Community Interest Company in 2020 and in particular to 20 years of support for marginalised young people by our founder Mike Farrington (see ‘Our People’ for more details). Increasingly evident over this time was the need to proactively respond to two priority areas essential in enabling young people to thrive:

Accommodation: The need to provide safe, loving, and professionally supported accommodation options particularly in the area of semi-independent living enabling young people to successfully navigate the transition from home (or care) to adulthood.

Education: The need for educational provision that focusses on character and emotional intelligence and where a range of talents and aspirations can be expressed and nurtured.

The name comes from a poem and an audio extract from the hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur. Elements of both are written below and eloquently capture the tremendous resilience and tenacity that many young people have already shown in overcoming traumatic starts to life that may include abuse, childhood trauma and community dysfunction. It also echoes the notion that such trauma inevitably creates hurt, scars and the odd prickly spike but that, with some key ingredients, the outcome can be something of striking beauty that defies the past, points to the future, and beautifies the world.