What is a Foyer

All young people need a home, support and a springboard into independent living, learning and work. Some don't get it. Foyers fill the gap.

When the Foyer movement started in France after the Second World War, it enabled young people to move from rural to urban areas to take up work. Foyers in France developed with a balanced community of workers, students and some young people who were homeless or unemployed. By the time the Foyer concept crossed the Channel in the early 90s, however, there was a much more urgent need to provide housing and a community for the many young people who are unable to live at home until they have completed the transition to adult life.

Since the first Foyers in the UK opened in 1992, the expansion of the movement has been astonishingly rapid. So much so, that in this - the 10th anniversary - year the number has risen to 120 Foyers across the UK, all of which are signed up to the Foyer Accreditation Scheme, with more in development. The diversity of the network is one of its strengths, but all Foyers have certain characteristics in common, namely the integration of accommodation and support services for disadvantaged young people.

Foyers provide:

• A stable and secure community in which young people can support one another and achieve independence;

 

• Help with finding appropriate employment, training or education to make this possible;

 

• Training in basic skills and independent living skills;

 

• Help with finding permanent accommodation and ongoing support when the young person has left the Foyer.
  

The Foyer concept has always included the provision within the Foyer of facilities for the wider community, partly to help to re-integrate young people into their communities, partly for economic reasons, and also to win the community?s support for the Foyer project. Each year Foyers support over 10,000 residents and non-residents in the most deprived inner city and rural areas.