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.

What is a Foyer?

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.

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

For a much more detailed insight to the Foyer movement, please check the Foyer Federations website.

The origins of the Foyer movement lie in post-war France, but can be traced back to the nineteenth Century, when the founders of the trade union movement began the establishment of Bourses du Travail - a kind of job centre, which also provided a haven for travelling workers, together with education and training. In parallel with this, hostels for young people were established by various religious groups.

The name "Foyer de Jeunes Travailleurs" appeared after the second world war, when the various providers of hostel accommodation for young workers came together in a voluntary grouping called the Union des Foyers de Jeunes Travailleurs (UFJT). At the same time there was large scale rural-to-urban migration in France, which led to a rapid expansion in the Foyer network, providing very basic accommodation, canteen and recreational facilities.

In response to worsening conditions for young French people , characterised by unemployment and economic activity, and under pressure from the UFJT, the French government invested in a modernisation programme of Foyers, and this brought with it a shift in the Foyers' focus, towards the promotion of social inclusion and "insertion", or induction, into the adult world and labour market.

Within the context of the bleak economic climate of the early nineties, and a growing recognition of the cycle of homelessness and unemployment (no home = no job = no home), the UK Foyer movement came into being in 1992 with the establishment of The Foyer Federation, and five pilot schemes based in existing YMCAs.

Two founding bodies, Shelter and Grand Metropolitan (now Diageo), gave birth to the Federation as means of promoting the Foyer concept in the UK, and sparked a remarkable period of growth, which saw the establishment of 40 Foyers by 1996. The common-sense philosophy clearly struck a chord with housing associations and local authorities, who began to establish wide-ranging partnerships to develop and run Foyers, the strength of which lies at the heart of their success.

The future for the further development of the Foyer concept looks bright. New projects can be found springing up right across Europe, from Spain to Denmark to Romania. Even further afield, we have seen its adoption by groups in Australia and the USA - (the Chelsea Foyer having opened recently in New York). There are now well over 100 Foyers operating in the UK, in addition to over 500 in France, and, together with the developing networks across the world, this represents the emergence of a major international movement, but one which seeks local solutions within a framework of shared values.