Our Story

Over our 32 year history we’ve worked with a huge number of inspiring young people, staff and organisations seeing Advantaged Thinking and youth empowerment come to life. We have a national and international community of friends and we are indebted to the great leaders and innovators who laid and built the foundations of the charity and network:

1992: The Foyer Federation was founded to promote and develop the concept of Foyers in the UK as a radical way of tackling the ‘no home, no job, no home’ cycle that was affecting young people.

1999: We challenged our network to embrace accreditation as the means through which we expressed our custodianship of the Foyer approach. 

2006: The Foyer Federation Board endorsed ‘Towards a focus on Transitions’ which described the ‘Foyer’ as a process not a place and identified the need to move beyond the bricks and mortar and see ourselves as being not ‘about’ homelessness, but about the transition to adulthood. This marked another fundamental shift in focus, with more emphasis on innovation and the beginning of the asset-based approach that we now call ‘Advantaged Thinking’. We also recognised, at a relatively early stage, that the Supporting People programme had its limitations as a funding stream for Foyers and began preparing our members to look beyond it.

2011: We launched our ‘coming of age’ strategy – a milestone on our journey to mature as an organisation, a launch pad for the next stage in our development. Open Talent – a positive, ‘asset based’ way to build the talent and aspirations of young people – formed the centrepiece of the Foyer Federation’s 2011-2014 strategic plan. 

2021: We celebrated 10 years of pioneering strengths-based solutions to youth advantage through our influential Advantaged Thinking focus. Advantaging young people through their abilities rather than disadvantaging them as liabilities expresses the original Foyer ethos in a way that has influenced the rise of more positive approaches in the youth sector. The 2021-2024 strategy was also launched, which focussed on a mission to build the Home for Advantaged Thinking to inspire and equip young people to realise their power and purpose.

2024 onwards: Equipped with our 2024-2030 strategy and brand new Advantaged Thinking and Foyer Federation websites, we’re embarking on a quest for power and purpose with young people who can’t live at home. While the way we deliver our services has evolved over time, the Foyer Federation remains true to its roots – we want young people who have experienced homelessness to thrive, not just survive. The Foyer Federation continues to work to make that a reality for thousands of young people each year.

We hope that you’ll join us on this next exciting stage of our journey!