Carla & Settle

Carla is a young person with experience of care who was referred to Settle, an award-winning social enterprise, in June 2019. She was about to move into her first home when they got in touch.

“Moving into this new place was very overwhelming for me, because of some of the circumstances I was going through. I was in my final year at university, and I also had post-traumatic stress, depression and anxiety. Going through all of that and moving into a new property and having no support from family. It just added onto the pressure.”

The charity helps young people like Carla to manage their finances, health and new home, and is often their sole source of support.We have funded Settle through our Combatting Youth Homelessness programme to support 24 young people across four London boroughs.

“Moving into independent living a lot of reality came knocking on my door. The Settle programme helped me to break these things down. We had a budgeting session where we looked at how much income I was getting in. I had to budget with my student finance and look at where I could cut down on my spending, whilst saving some money so that I could socialise with my friends.

“With no family, as soon as I turned 18 I was left by the care system to do things for myself. To have a programme like Settle coming along helping and supporting me is almost like having a family. Just knowing I have somebody to support me during this transition is just phenomenal.”