Samara Oldfield moved into one of our supported housing schemes in Cornwall when she was 17-years-old and six months pregnant with her daughter, Rozie-Mae.
Needing a safe and secure place to call home when she welcomed her daughter into the world, Samara is thankful to be offered supported housing for stability and security.
Samara reflects on her journey so far and highlights how crucial supported housing is.
She said: “I feel that LiveWest, having places like these, gives people more opportunities to start and provides them with more of a chance.
“It’s useful for young people, and it just gives them an opportunity to live and experience without having all the troubles.”
Last November, we launched our Let’s Talk Supported Housing Campaign to share the importance of providing supported housing services for so many individuals and families across the UK.
The supported housing scheme, where Samara and Rozie-Mae live, provides accommodation for 13 young parents and young people aged 16 to 24 years.
With Rozie, now a year old and happily settled into her first-ever home, Samara shares her thoughts: “To have our own individual space with me and Rozie, I feel it’s important for both of us. It gives me a chance to teach Rozie. I don’t have people all involved but I know I have the support there if it’s needed.
“Me and Rozie can do our own things but if something’s wrong or, if I need support with something, I know that I can go to LiveWest colleagues, they can explain and help us in the best way they can.
“They are really good at supporting and offering options when it’s needed and on things that may be useful, like groups to support Rozie as well as me.”
The mother and daughter both currently live in a self-contained two-floor home, with a shared garden with all 13 residents living there as well as a communal kitchen and living space.
Samara said: “Rozie has got things she can do in the garden, and we can go out for walks. We are in a place where we are close to the beach, the town, the shops… we’ve got everything we need. We also have a bus stop down the road. We are sorted.”
At the scheme, Samara and Rozie's are not the only young mother and daughter. With other mothers of a similar age, Samara has had a chance to meet new young mums like her.
She said: "It gives you more of an opportunity and I feel there’s not many places that will offer you to live with your child. I feel like with young parents, because that’s what we all are, it’s really useful to have an opportunity to meet other young parents but also live with them.
“You don’t just get the support from the staff here, you also get it from the other residents too.
“If one parent has an issue, we can go to one another and discuss it. It gives you a chance to be like ‘What and I doing wrong and what can I do to improve?’.”
Being brought up in and out of family homes and in the foster care system, Samara talks more about her future and the comfort she wants to provide Rozie-Mae for her life.
She added: “I would like to be settled with Rozie, not having to move, not having to stress about everything. And to get her into school and give her the upbringing that I didn’t have because she deserves that.
“She hasn’t done anything wrong in the world and as my job, I’m here to protect her and give her the best life possible.”