Staff from Look Ahead, SEGRO and LandAid come together to celebrate the opening of Look Ahead's St Kilda's property.
Look Ahead are delighted to announce that the refurbishment works at our St Kilda’s property are officially complete. The building is one of two Victorian townhouses that have been extensively renovated extensively to make up Look Ahead’s specialist Oaklands and St Kilda’s Young People Service in Ealing.
Look Ahead marked the occasion by hosting our valued colleagues from partners SEGRO and LandAid who funded the refurbishment works at the site, carried out by our contractors Chas Berger.
Our guests joined staff from Look Ahead’s operations and property teams, and enjoyed a tour of the six-bedroom building, which has been specially adapted to accommodate and provide a psychologically informed and supportive environment for young people aged 18-25 from across London who have mental health support needs.
A Look Ahead staff member tells LandAid CEO Paul Morrish about how the Oaklands and St Kilda's Service will support young people.
Colleagues from SEGRO and LandAid also had the opportunity to put questions to the Look Ahead staff team around the day-to-day running of the service, the types of support on offer, referrals and the wider construction and refurbishment process.
Like its sister site at Oaklands, St Kilda’s boasts generous communal spaces, including a garden with an annexe for social and therapeutic activities.
Visitors from SEGRO stand outside St Kilda's after their tour.
The development of the support model at Oaklands and St Kilda’s service followed the publication of research commissioned by Look Ahead in 2022, with funding from the Wates Family Enterprise Trust, that found worrying gaps between adolescent and adult mental health services, concluding that A&E departments had become an ‘accidental hub’ for young people experiencing mental crisis.
The service will increase the capacity for supporting young people in local communities away from hospital settings, and ease pressure on the NHS.
The service is staffed by a specialist team, offering 24/7 support and the young people will continue to engage with NHS psychologists and additional mental health support from the voluntary sector.
The pioneering scheme offers a replicable blueprint for how young people with mental health needs can access specialist support in a homely environment through new supported housing models.
Oaklands and St Kilda’s was supported by property industry charity LandAid; SEGRO; the UK Real Estate Investment Trust; Property Race Day; The Story of Christmas; and the Greater London Authority. In total, external partners provided more than £1 million in funding.
