Working to End and Prevent Homelessness:
Lifetime Commitmement to Creating Positive Change
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Amy Varle is an incredibly knowledgeable and enthusiastic advocate for homeless people, having been homeless herself as a teenager. Following a 10-month stay in a supported accommodation project for young people at the age of 16, Amy became employed within a local government housing role, supporting the management of council-owned property, along with practical needs of the most acutely vulnerable people the authority housed. For the next eight years, Amy successfully worked with a diverse client group, ranging from those with severe mental health issues and learning disabilities, to asylum seekers and children leaving care.
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In 2012, Amy left her council role and achieved her dream of becoming self-employed, working independently with the aim of assisting homeless people in her local area find suitable, permanent homes. Spending the next three years conducting practical research across the public, private and voluntary sectors, Amy found herself immersed in a diverse network of housing and support providers.
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She began supporting her eveloving network connections to integrate and work together, helping them to facilitate barrier-free housing options that Could be made available to anyone in need. Beginning to explore highly innovative techniques being used with success in other parts of the world, Amy began passionately advocating for a 'Housing First' led approach towards homelessness in Britain.
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In 2016, Amy won a Fellowship from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and completed a six-week study tour to the East and West coasts of the USA in order to gather best practice for homelessness resolution. Once home, sponsored by the National Housing Federation, she published an in-depth strategy document, entitled 'Social Property Investment: Pioneering Strategies for 21st Century Homelessness Prevention and Response'. This has since been delivered by Amy to key policymakers, including the Prime Minister, receiving positive attention from leading homelessness and social justice advocates such as the Big Issue and Amnesty International.
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Amy has directly provided homelessness solutions to over 100 socially disadvantaged individuals, with the practical application of her studies evidencing governmental savings in excess of £2.5 million to date. In recognition of her social justice advocacy work, in 2018 Amy was awarded the Amnesty International Suffragette Spirit Award, celebrating 100 years of leading female human rights activists around the world. You can see the Wikipedia profile Amnesty International created to promote Amy here.
As Amy explores, develops and promotes new solutions towards homelessness, she continues to work as a researcher and advocate for homeless people; freely sharing her creative knowledge, ideas, strategies and techniques with fellow professionals via her speaking, writing and consultation work. Amy has supported initiatives such as the Manchester Housing Ideas Exchange, Business Rocks Homeless Hackathon and was headhunted by philanthropists Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs to assist with project management of the iconic Manchester 'Stock Exchange' Homeless Initiative. Amy has spoken professionally for organisations such as the Queen's Nursing Institute, ThinkHouse at the House of Lords and Salford University.
