Bill Sargent Trust
The Bill Sargent Trust was established to commemorate the late Reverend Bill Sargent, who dedicated his life to addressing poverty and homelessness. You can read more about Rev. Bill's life and work by following this link.
The Trust is a research charity that demonstrates the need for housing and funding support in and around Hampshire (including Portsmouth and Southampton) by commissioning research into issues related to poverty and homelessness. The Trust was established in 1994 and ran independently for many years, producing a variety of research reports.
The Trust is now in its final stage and tasked Action Hampshire to complete one final research project before The Trust closes. Undertaken from June 2023 - May 2024, the study took a participatory approach, working with a local homeless charity and their associated Service User and Residents Association, to explore a topic identified by those with lived experience as important: the impact of homeless services on the mental health of service users and their perceptions of homeless services. Data collected through various creative methods was analysed to reveal that being shown humanity is an important factor in whether experiences with homeless services have a positive or negative effect on service users’ mental health. Additionally, a plethora of perceptions of homeless services based on individual experiences were uncovered, that lead participants to believe little change is possible, as those who could help are part of and are stuck within a broken system. Together these themes are used to suggest five co-created recommendations which should be taken into consideration by stakeholders within all levels of homeless services and the wider system.
The final report for this project is available to download now! Follow this link to read the report.
Alternatively you can read our executive summary leaflet. Follow this link to read the leaflet.
Join us for our Bill Sargent Trust Celebration Event on Wednesday 28th August 11:00 - 13:00, where we will launch the latest report and share all the Bill Sargent Trust research outputs. For more details and to book your free place, follow this link.
The legacy of the Bill Sargent Trust will live on, as will the research outputs, which will continue to be accessible on this website.
