Building aspiration when working with homeless young people in the UK: A case study

Abstract

Summary

Researchers may identify the active elements that give care programs their efficacy by exploring practice wisdom. In doing so, this case study revealed the importance of developing aspiration as a key component in helping homeless young people to achieve positive outcomes. Qualitative research was conducted with a charity working with homeless young people in residential settings. Fieldwork observations (n = 11), semistructured interviews (n = 16) and focus groups (n = 3), were used to explore the importance building aspiration and how this was operationalized in practice. Taking a grounded theory approach, thematic and axial coding was used in the analysis of data.

Findings

Findings confirmed that homeless young people often presented with low aspiration and presented insight into how practitioners might address this. Techniques to build aspiration were identified that improve the psychological state of the young person creating a realistic focus. Aspiration was shown to be built through the provision of knowledge, opportunities, and good social support.

Applications

Practitioners should engage in constructive programs that build skills, confidence, and hope. Clients should focus on future possibilities and with active social support of care providers and the provision of opportunities, knowledge, and practical support to build realistic expectations. Such pro-social activities reduce negative impacts for homeless young people.

Introduction

Many homeless young people, when presenting to services designed to support them, come with low aspiration. Those who find themselves in care environments often experience disadvantage, disruption, and neglect, all of which are likely to result in lower educational and career aspirations (Creed et al., 2011; Southgate et al., 2015; Wilks & Wilson, 2012). Raising aspiration is important, as such young people are more likely to engage in problematic behaviors as they feel they have nothing to lose. For example, they do not expect to do well in education or get a good job (Saarikkomäki & Kivivuori, 2013). However, Beal and Crockett (2010) suggest that the transition into adulthood is a time where an individual may become more focused on their aspirations for the future and this transition period presents an opportunity to engage with homeless young people.

Rothon et al. (2011) define aspiration as the desires and aims of a person. It is what one would like to happen, as opposed to what one thinks might happen which could be described as expectation (Robinson, 2022). Beal and Crockett (2013) reveal that aspirations develop through adolescence, becoming more realistic, as perceived ability and opportunities presented to an individual are considered. In this way, aspiration can lead to goal development and the creation of plans that encourage educational and vocational achievement. Although much research is focused on these ideas, aspiration is not limited to education and employment and can be thought of in many ways such as psychological well-being, individual development, being a good parent, or taking care of the planet. However, social inequalities, like those experienced by young homeless people, may lead to a framing of the probable future self in a constrained way with lower aspiration of what is possible (Rainford, 2023) although it should be acknowledged this may be a euro-centric view.

For young homeless people, aspiration may have a protective quality against vulnerability. A United Kingdom (UK) cohort study showed that those at the age of 16 who were uncertain about their future career were three times more likely to not be in education, employment or training (Gutman & Schoon, 2012). Beal and Crockett (2013) show that educational and vocational expectations are linked to attainment. Aspirations help raise expectations, generate future goals, and predict how time and energy will be spent (Ashby & Schoon, 2012; Kiang et al., 2015). However, homeless young people may present with, “lower occupational aspirations, less career planning, more career barriers [and] lower educational aspirations for themselves” (Creed et al., 2011, p. 1720).

Scott et al. (2007) refer to socialization theories suggesting that adolescents from economically privileged backgrounds have access to resources, knowledge, role models and networks that are more likely to result in higher aspirations. Sawitri and Creed (2015) confirm, showing that aspirations are higher where there is positive as opposed to negative socio-environmental conditions. Supportive families are also positively associated with higher aspirations (Flouri et al., 2015; Gerard & Booth, 2015) and family influences play a role in shaping adolescent career expectations (Ashby & Schoon, 2012; Jodl et al., 2001). Conversely, Creed et al. (2011) show that those who have lived in environments without the care of family have lower educational aspirations and tend to aspire to less prestigious occupations which are less satisfying. These occupations are also likely to be less secure and lower paying. Such vulnerabilities are more likely to result in poor psychological health and low self-esteem. As adolescents develop goals in line with their expectation, a person with low self-esteem is likely to have low expectations and perceive their ability at a much lower level than what they can achieve (Pert, 2013). Although other highly disadvantaged young people may suffer from low aspiration, homeless young people are particularly at risk. Aspirational challenges are constrained by a focus on day-to-day survival rather than future planning. Their homelessness may also result in significant trauma and stigma that needs to be addressed (Watson & Cuervo, 2017). In addition to this complex situation, there are also challenges for young people in finding affordable housing and reliable job opportunities (Hoolachan et al., 2107) due to the increased casualization of the workforce in the UK and a lack of career opportunity due to increasing demands for specific qualifications (Chesters & Wyn, 2019).

This case study explores how an organization working with homeless young people based in the south-west of the UK sought to address the problem of low aspiration in practice. The UK homelessness charity, Centre Point (2023) have estimated that 129,00 young people were homeless or at risk of homelessness in 2022 in the UK. Crisis (2023) say that since the COVID pandemic, homelessness in the UK is increasing, so this population is significant and growing. Centre Point (2023), reporting on the scale of youth homelessness in the UK, found that positive outcomes where homelessness was successfully prevented or relieved by local government led services was just 38% meaning 62% of young people remained or found themselves homeless. Therefore, understanding how to work effectively with this population is of particular research interest.

Research that considers the relationship between aspiration and young people is established internationally but is very limited regarding youth homelessness. The author could only identify one other study that explicitly focused on aspiration in youth homelessness (Robinson, 2022) but here the attention is on organizational expectations with a specific focus on youth of color. This article reports an original contribution based on a case study with a charity based in the south-west of England, UK, and to our knowledge is the first to present findings on how aspiration can be built with young homeless people based on the experience of practitioners. It offers novel insights into effective and nuanced approaches for the practice of social workers and others working with such young people. The study shows that successful intervention is not contingent on whether a young person presents with motivation but that practitioners can help young people build aspiration using the various techniques and practices reported in this study. The discussion also demonstrates from wider research and theories as to why such practice has efficacy.

Research design

Methodological approach

Case studies are empirical inquiries which investigate a phenomenon in its real-life context (Yin, 2009), with multiple methods used for data collection to provide an in-depth study (Priya, 2021). They may be descriptive or explanatory in nature and consider how certain conditions arise (Yin, 2009). As a research strategy, case studies are deemed appropriate for exploring knowledge gained through experience, sometimes known as practice wisdom. Practice wisdom is intuitive, derived from tacit knowledge and is an embodied in the practical understanding and judgement of experienced practitioners (Cheung, 2017). Glumbíková et al., (2021, p. 889) suggest practice wisdom, “…makes it possible to decide what constitutes good, and take the right action with the right person, to the right extent, and the right time, with the right desire, and the right way, under conditions of uncertainty and complexity.” Dunne and Parker (2021) describe how experience provides an opportunity for those working with young people to learn. DeRoos (1990, p. 279) describes such knowledge as “evolutionary epistemology”. This is an accumulation of knowledge and ideas from multiple sources that is always growing and changing and impacting upon practice decisions. Although some of this knowledge may be acquired from formal training, the idea is that this is wisdom gained through experience in practice over time. To social workers, decisions may feel intuitive and instinctive, but experience has taught them how to respond in given situations. Kazdin (2008) offers an explanation of this intuitive decision-making as pattern recognition based on knowledge of what has worked in the past. Practice wisdom was explored using qualitative methods. The research was driven by a constructionist ontology and interpretive epistemology with the aim of eliciting the subjective interpretations of the everyday lives of respondents in relation to their experiences as practitioners.

Participants and permissions

The findings upon which this article is based comprise part of a wider research project which sought to investigate the role of a charitable organization based in England, called Supporting People Programmes (SPP) and their work with vulnerable young people aged 16–25 years. SPP had 25 years' experience of working with homeless young people in a region of England. SSP was chosen due to its perceived success in helping young people to be housed. This research sought to understand SPP's practice and explore the reasons for this reported success. Following ethical approval by a UK University, informed consent was given by those who participated. Names have been changed to anonymize the organization and its staff. The investigation considered the subjective interpretations of the practices of a range of participants in relation to their work.

Data collection methods and sampling

Methods for the gathering of data were conducted in three phases. Firstly, fieldwork observations of those working with young people (n = 11) to witness the approaches of the work with young people.

Secondly, one-to-one semistructured interviews were conducted with staff (n = 16; female = 8, male = 8|). A purposive sampling approach was adopted so that interviews were conducted at all levels of the organization including those involved in service delivery, supervision, and senior management (8 female, 8 male). Practitioner experience ranged from 6 months to 25 years. Interviews were based on a predesigned schedule. They sought to ascertain the individual understanding of effectiveness in their work with homeless young people. Lessons learned from experience were captured that could be passed on to those doing similar work.

Having conducted interviews, focus groups, established by convenience sampling, considered emerging themes that represented the core elements of effective practice for the organization. This included the need to build aspiration. Focus groups considered the differing experiences, knowledge, and perspectives of those within the organization; the first group was senior staff/managers (n = 15), the second were frontline workers (n = 6), and the third was a small group of young people (n = 3) who were homeless clients. Focus groups checked that understanding gained through interviews was accurate and themes identified did represent the practice of the organization. They were not set up to compare perspectives. Young people were not included in the interviews as the knowledge sought in this study was based on practitioner experience however, a focus group with young people was convened to establish whether such practice was observable and of value.

Analysis

Taking a grounded theory approach (see Gibson & Hartman, 2014), thematic and axial coding was used in the analysis of the findings. A four-stage process ensured the examination and inductive interpretation of the data. To begin with, observation records and interview transcripts produced by the author were read in full to get an overview of the findings. These were then indexed and coded to identify different aspects of practice experience. Next, these experiences were summarized as broad topics that encapsulated the key findings emerging from the data. Finally, these topics were organized into generic themes by further exploring staff and participant experiences that checked for accuracy of understanding.

What follows is a presentation of the findings in relation to a key theme that emerged - building aspiration. Verbatim quotes provide examples of this belief, the benefits of raising aspiration and how this was operationalized in practice. This is highlighted in the sub-themes. Findings are interwoven with discussion in an attempt offer support for the practice examples described.

Findings and discussion

Staff at SPP were observably passionate about their desire to help young people develop future goals and raise aspirations about what might be possible. This approach was felt by many staff to be essential in helping young people move towards independent living and they discussed the idea of realizing the potential in the young people they worked with. As a concept and a value, raising aspiration had become established in the mind-set of SPP staff.

Future thinking

In practice, SPP provided educational programs and routine activities that sought to build confidence in their clients to increase the prospect of further education and vocational opportunities. A recurrent sub-theme regarding building aspiration was the need to get young people thinking about their future. Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dennis acknowledged this saying:

The next step then was raising their aspirations. If they aspired to something, they could then change themselves and take the right steps to move forward. If they had no aspiration, you're on a hiding to nothing …I want to be fostering that type of ethos … allowing people to explore their own aspirations and then encouraging them to say it is achievable and getting them to believe in themselves because if you can get that far, they'll then probably want to change. (Dennis—Deputy CEO)

Reducing problematic behaviors

One participant recognized that future thinking and raising aspiration not only led to engagement in education and work but had the added benefit of reducing problematic behaviors:

Most people want to find that kind of vocation, calling, something that they're good at. You know, you almost don't need to support them because … you don't have those conversations about ‘stop smoking’ stuff because they're not interested anymore; they're busy training for the army or doing whatever else. And that kind of old character has dissipated. (Graham—Head of Operations)

The belief of various participants at SPP was that if you got young people involved in something they were passionate about, then anti-social behavior would diminish as they worked towards achieving their goals. This idea is supported in the research of Gerard and Booth (2015) who demonstrate a link showing that not only do adolescent aspirations generate hopefulness about the future, but they protect against negative outcomes.

Environmental influences on aspiration

However, there was a significant challenge in that many young people presented to SPP with low aspiration with practitioners observing that this was often due to family backgrounds and what these young people had experienced in life so far. As observed by SPP participants, family background can have a negative impact on how young people view their prospects. Creed et al. (2011) point out that many adolescents make decisions with the support of family and parents but some, like those that SPP worked with, had to make decisions about their future at a time of uncertainty, instability and without such support. These young people often came from poor socio-economic backgrounds and sometimes had a total lack of support or encouragement. In fact, sometimes the family influence had been negative. One support-co-ordinator commented during a focus group that:

It's so important to nurture [aspiration] … especially if their influences are … being told by mum and dad their whole life, “You're rubbish. You're nothing. You can't do anything”. (Focus Group - Practitioners)

Providing positive opportunities and social support

For some young people at SPP, their environmental experiences had been the very opposite of what would be needed to encourage high aspirations, and this is something that would need to be addressed. Gerard and Booth (2015) have shown that positive educational environments are important and seem more beneficial for young people with low academic aspirations. The right kind of educational environment can stimulate educational aspirations and mitigate for socio-economic disadvantage and nonsupportive families (Madarasova et al., 2010). Teacher support has shown to increase adolescent aspiration and expectation (Cochran et al., 2011). In a similar way, SPP tried to provide positive educational environments and opportunities. Kiera described the approach of SPP:

… most of the clients that come in and don't want their lives to change [is] … because they think that they can't. We're letting them know that you can do other things … What a lot of them think is that they could never ever get to university, so they don't. They'd never come and say, “Well, I want to go to Uni”, because they don't think it is possible. But if we are helping them with their education, we talk about [that] being a possibility and they start to believe in themselves that they could, they think, “Actually, I do want to do that.”… So, we're there to let them know, give them as many options as possible. (Kiera—Service Manager)

Providing social support to vulnerable young people is important. According to Wall et al. (1999), social support is the availability of reliable people who show that a young person is valued and provides information to demonstrate practical care. Bum and Jeon (2016) argue that social support is associated with developing higher self-esteem and psychological stability. Conversely, Lakey and Cronin (2008) show that those who lack social support are more likely to feel psychologically isolated and depressed.

Having recognized that young people may present with low aspiration due to personal vulnerabilities and poor environmental influences, those who work with homeless young people have a challenge to address these deficits. The emerging wisdom from workers at SPP suggested two ideas that encouraged greater social support. Firstly, there was the need to change the psychological state of the client, instilling a new belief and a feeling of empowerment and hope through care and encouragement. Secondly, was the need to provide opportunities, options and knowledge that allowed these new beliefs to be realized. This aligns with the Self-Concept Theory of Gottfredson (1981) regarding occupational aspiration, which suggests that people seek careers that are congruent with their own self-image and based on their knowledge about occupations (Volodina & Nagy, 2016). By building self-belief and knowledge of opportunities, aspirations are likely to increase.

Changing the psychological state

Changing the internal psychological state of clients seemed important to SPP staff. In interviews they reflected on the poor psychological state with which clients often presented and commented on the lack of self-esteem and self-worth.

Rothon et al. (2011) show how vulnerabilities such as psychological distress and low self-esteem negatively affect aspirations and result in poorer educational outcomes. There are numerous theories that discuss the role of aspiration. Salmela-Aro et al. (2007) propose a Life-span Model of Motivation, suggesting the importance of aspiration in directing choices for individual development. Ashby and Schoon (2012) say that the model recognizes people adjust goals because of negative experiences and on that basis, not everyone starts out at the same point. Social influences such as family background affect the development of adolescent aspirations, as do personal influences such as mental state and personality. Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) (Nungsari et al., 2023; Sawitri & Creed, 2015) considers social and personal influences and looks at aspiration in relation to concepts that drive career-related actions. Creed et al. (2011) say these concepts include self-efficacy, outcome expectations and career goals. Strand and Winston (2008) refer to these as the personal dimensions in building aspiration. Personal dimensions are associated with an individual's perceptions of their own abilities and psychological state. SPP constantly encountered people with low self-esteem, a poor psychological state, and a lack of belief in themselves often due to their backgrounds and this is something the sought to address.

Creed et al. (2011) argue that significant adults like caseworkers have a pivotal role in raising expectations of clients where parental expectations were low. Social support in this way protects against adolescent vulnerabilities, improves the likelihood of academic achievement, and makes young people more optimistic. SPP staff recognized they had an important role to play and as Naomi, a support co-ordinator pointed out, “You're trying to be a positive role model and empower and encourage the young person to make positive steps to improve their life”.

Optimistic professionals positively influence outcomes. There is a link between workers who project hopefulness and have more positive bonds with the well-being of their clients (Berry & Greenwood, 2016; O’Connell & Stein, 2011). Therefore, workers exhibiting aspirations for the young people they help would seem to be an important feature where there has been this deficit. The purpose of this positivity is to try to build belief, confidence, and self-esteem in the client. Reflecting on the importance of building belief in clients, Kerrie remarked:

It's taking young people who think they've got nothing going for them or think that they're not good at anything and giving them the chance to do things or have experiences that they may not usually of had and actually having that moment where they think, actually, “I'm quite good at that”. Or, being encouraged to get into college because they may have always thought they are not academic but if you get them on the right course, something they really want to do, it's about finding their passion and that's what I think is really important. A lot of the stuff we do is building the confidence because as soon as you get the confidence up of a young person, so much follows that. (Kerrie—Service Manager)

We see from this comment that SPP staff put an emphasis on building their client's belief, confidence, and self-esteem. Belief and confidence in a young person's ability has an impact on aspiration and performance with negative expectations leading to failure (Gao & Eccles, 2020; Golan & You, 2021). Orth et al. (2012) show that one of the most important personal factors that influences aspiration is self-esteem, which, is a sign of psychological well-being in adolescents. Kiang et al. (2015) show a correlation between aspiration and high self-esteem and wider research shows that a sense of well-being and higher self-esteem is associated with commitment to career path exploration and increased vocational aspiration, especially for those in care settings (Creed et al., 2011; Patton & Creed, 2007). Drawing attention to client capabilities and encouraging self-belief appeared to be successful in raising self-esteem and aspiration amongst the vulnerable young people with whom SPP worked. Reflecting on her journey through SPP high support housing into the medium support housing unit, one young person commented in a focus group, “My confidence has gone up so much. My self-esteem. I've sorted myself out and I'm in a tenancy flat looking to move out soon.”

Another way self-esteem can also be improved in adolescents is through building multiple social identifications (Benish et al., 2011). Social Identity Theory suggests the groups to which we belong define us (Willetts & Clarke, 2014) and that self-esteem is built by incorporating the positive attributes of these groups, a sense of psychological security, stimulation and belonging (Haslam et al., 2009). Benish et al. (2011) discuss Enhancement Theory that suggests that multiple social identifications increase self-esteem by providing multiple sources of status, meaning and direction. This was a challenge to workers like those at SPP. Many of their clients had dropped out of school, had little or no contact with their family and little, if any, positive contact with social groups or clubs. Therefore, it was important to provide opportunities in education and work as well as involvement in other group activities and clubs that would allow a young person to obtain a wider range of social identifications. Feeling grounded in such groups helps adolescents to cope and maintain self-esteem (Haslam et al., 2009). We shall consider the provision of opportunities in the more detail in the next section.

The building of belief and pointing to future possibilities was a key feature of the SPP approach. Andrew, a support co-ordinator at the high support unit acknowledged the need to develop this hope in clients especially when their life experiences thus far were difficult:

You know, giving people something to hope for. …They haven't had a particularly excellent life so far, [so] give them something to think of to look forward to, to move towards [and] to move away from where they are at the moment. (Andrew—Support Co-ordinator)

Higher aspiration builds hope in young people about the future and is beneficial in several ways. Hopefulness improves emotional health, builds psychological well-being and a sense of optimism. Young people with optimism about the future cope with stress more effectively and are more resilient (Duke et al., 2011; Snyder, 2002). In this way, Berry and Greenwood (2016) discuss how hope protects against risky behaviors as well as emotional and behavioral difficulties in adolescents because it encourages social inclusion and involvement in vocational and educational activities. They also suggest that hope promotes goal-directed behaviors and generates a goal-centred orientation. This idea finds support in wider research that demonstrates how hopeful clients have increased motivation towards developing strategies to attain their goals (Duke et al., 2011; Gerard & Booth, 2015).

Hope Theory (Duke et al., 2011; Snyder, 2002) suggests that a positive motivational state with goal-directed efforts and plans is important for generating hope. Braithwaite (2004) says motivation keeps adolescents engaged in goal-orientated efforts. Observations and interviews revealed that SPP staff tried to help young people set such goals with regular progress reviews.

Progress towards goals demonstrates that the future can be different from what these young people might currently expect and can increase aspiration and hope further. Such progress is important when we contrast this with Learned Helplessness Theory (see Miller & Seligman, 1975) where individuals exist within a negative context for all life events because of an impaired ability to change or believe that life can be different because of what experience has taught them so far (Dygdon & Dienes, 2013). Gomez et al. (2015) argues that this is a significant issue for those emerging into adulthood through care environments.

Providing opportunities, options & knowledge

SPP recognized that aspiration and self-esteem was built through providing opportunities as these allowed a young person to be able to see what they were capable of and that they had skills to offer, which resulted in increased confidence. Lisa noted this approach in some of their educational work:

… it was a pilot for us to deliver training to 16–18 year olds with some provision for 19 and upwards that [would earn them] NOCN credits. …We went with the employability [theme] and created a project with music as the focus. …Once we got clients involved, they really loved it. It's just getting the engagement from clients, which was frustrating. …They gained confidence. …They learned new things there that they probably didn't even think they'd be interested in…but I think confidence was the biggest one. I really saw some clients grow in it. (Lisa—Support Co-ordinator)

As expectations and aspirations are based on self-perception about ability (Jodl et al., 2001; Rothon et al., 2011), it is possible to raise self-esteem by focusing on the assets of young people and not just deficits as outlined in the Positive Youth Development perspective (Zava et al., 2022). This positive focus on what a young person can do is part of the process of building belief in their abilities. Creed et al. (2011) show that encouragement for academic achievement with tangible support that leads to actual opportunities results in better education outcomes and occupations that are more prestigious. Therefore, support and care that provides real opportunities is necessary.

Experience of a positive family and school environment, where fundamental knowledge, skills and values are learned, enables a person to have a productive life and engage in social settings successfully (Gerard & Booth, 2015). However, SPP clients often presented having not experienced these positive environments. Therefore, staff needed to help clients to develop knowledge and skills for successful outcomes. They noted that providing opportunities in a supportive environment helped and motivated clients about the future and developed new skills. For example, this was observed in involving young people to help at a charity event which motivated one of the young people to seek out further volunteering opportunities and gave a noticeable boost in confidence.

The experience of SPP is confirmed by the research of Beal and Crockett (2013) who show that adolescents benefit from volunteering opportunities as it boosts self-esteem. Eccles and Gootman (2002) shows how such experiences build self-knowledge that leads to refinement in aspirations and expectations, ensuring goals about vocation are aspirational but also realistic. In this way, Sawitri and Creed (2015) argue that providers should offer opportunities that allow for the development of skills and enjoyment from the challenge of mastering such skills in new and sometimes challenging environments.

Rothon et al. (2011) suggest that those from lower social class backgrounds have more difficulty turning high aspiration into high achievement possibly due to a lack of knowledge regarding educational and vocational opportunities. Therefore, as well as providing education itself, SPP workers believed in providing knowledge about options and opportunities beyond what they themselves offered.

It was observed that SPP staff signposted and supported their clients to engage in wider education, vocational and social opportunities. This is important as seeking and obtaining useful career advice results in better educational and vocational achievement, higher self-esteem, commitment to career aspirations and greater persistence and optimism (Gutman & Schoon, 2012).

Knowledge of options and opportunities is important. Rational Action Theory suggests educational aspirations are built on an assessment of options available with consideration to the costs, benefits, and likelihood of success (Rothon et al., 2011). Therefore, helping young people to discover these options and to support them in their assessment is valuable. Ashby and Schoon (2012) suggest that building aspiration is about helping a young person know what they want to do and how to achieve it. The knowledge of possibilities encourages a person to have ambitions. Munson and Strauss (1993) show how knowledge of opportunities in a diverse range of occupations is also useful because young people tend to engage in social modelling of occupations based on their immediate environment and thus limit their choices. As Creed et al. (2011) suggest, widening knowledge of careers and opportunities may lead to further engagement in education or training that results in more prestigious occupations. Knowledge helps a young person to build a coherent and realistic plan that in turn enables them to embark on a journey where success in adulthood is more likely. The role of organizations like SPP is to support this. Lesley summed up their approach, drawing attention to the dimensions discussed regarding self-belief and options:

It's life skills and education and for me especially, it's trying to install the belief in the young people that yes, you've ended up in supported housing for whatever reason but that does not mean your life has to end here. Then there are opportunities to do whatever you want really. Trying to inspire them. Trying to empower them. The way I personally work is, I try and give the young person as many options. If they're interested in something, give them as many options as they can have and give them the consequences of the decisions that they will make. So that's more to do with things like paying rent but say they're interested in, I don't know, horses. Then obviously, I will look at apprenticeships where they work, five days, go to college one day or I will look into [named local] college which is renowned for that. There are all sorts of smaller colleges that just do NVQs rather than national diplomas and A-levels in equestrian stuff. So, that's what I believe I'm there for. (Lesley—Support Co-ordinator)

This approach of providing options for clients was something that they appreciated and recognized as a strength in the more skilled support co-ordinator. During a focus group one client commented:

I find the best part of a support worker; of what they can do is when they give the person options about their life. …Instead of giving them one route they give them you know, five, six, seven, eight. You know they give so many routes. They tell them quite clearly; you can do whatever you want with your life now. You decide, you know, you make your choices, and I will help you get there. That's the best kind of support worker. (Client Focus Group)

At one level, this quote is encouraging because options are important, but it also raises a concern as well. Providing opportunities and options has value but these need to be real options and real opportunities. Creed et al. (2011) suggest that if aspirations and expectations are raised and then an organization does not deliver because opportunities and resources are not there, or because the client lacks capability, then we risk causing disappointment and distress to a young person as there must be realism. Rothon et al. (2011) draw attention to the idea of self-concept in psychological literature where young people move from fantasy in their early years, through a tentative stage in adolescence to a realistic stage in young adulthood regarding future choices. The balance workers must strive for is not to indulge in fantasy but to show young clients that realistic goals might be much bigger than they realized or expected. Gupta and Thapliyal (2015) suggest that developing a positive self-concept is also linked to pro-social behavior that will increase opportunities. However, realism is important and for some young people, high educational aspirations may not be appropriate due to cognitive skills and other factors (Madarasova et al., 2010). There were some staff at SPP who understood the need for realism and a focus group discussion commented on encouraging opportunities that were achievable and getting the best realistic outcome for each individual young person.

However, there was a message from some staff that told clients they can do anything. This is not the same thing as realizing potential which is about helping a client maximize their abilities. Aspirations and expectations need to align and when they do, self-esteem improves but when they do not, Kiang et al. (2015) show that there can be an adverse effect on well-being. Bravo et al. (2016) show that a gap between aspirations and expectations is associated with lower educational attainment and increased engagement in risky behavior. Encouraging young people in a direction where they may not have capability could cause further difficulties rather than be a helpful goal. Staff need to use techniques that enable realistic formation of vocational aspirations such as the Mapping Vocational Challenges approach (Gottfredson & Lapan, 1997). This tool encourages a worker to consider all potential occupations with a client, making them aware of options. This list is narrowed down to a small number of desirable options with the challenge of locating information about them, including the ability level and qualifications needed to succeed and recognizing there may be levels within an occupation that require different abilities. Support workers can help clients assess their ability to find their place within that occupation. They can then develop a plan to achieve this with support in identifying the right training both towards the job itself and towards job attainment skills such as performing well in a job interview. Cochran et al. (2011) also suggest that thought to a back-up plan is helpful if the first choice does not work out as this provides the client with possible future options.

Limitations

Only one person interviewed represented a black and minority ethnic group although this did reflect a lack of cultural diversity in the town where the project was based and the client group. However, this must be noted as a limitation of the study (see Robinson, 2022 on this topic) and such approaches to building aspiration cannot necessarily be generalized as effective practice to other cultural groups and would need exploring in further studies.

Success of the organization in this case study is not directly measured. Interviews revealed many anecdotal examples of how the organization believed young people had been helped and the organization had historically met contractual obligations in terms of outputs and outcomes which is why it was selected as a case study. However, this study did not seek empirical data to prove success and future studies to measure the impact of increased aspiration would be valuable to confirm its importance in practice.

The discussion around aspiration largely focuses on education and vocation and may in this way reflect dominant ideas around society and citizenship in the UK context that are less important in other cultures and societies. Although some consideration is given to aspiration as a means of improving psychological state and individual development, aspiration to other factors that bring value and that benefit society are not considered here.

A final limitation is that this study focused only on the practice wisdom of experienced practitioners and not the views of young people themselves as to what constitutes effective practice. A focus group of young people agreed with the ideas of practitioners regarding the importance of building aspiration but their own original thoughts on how to engage effectively with them was not sought. A future comparative study may provide further helpful insights.

Conclusion

This article has reported the findings of a research study which undertook a grounded theory analysis of ideas from experienced practitioners on how to effectively work with homeless young people. It was found that building the aspiration of these young people was a key component in their practice and helped achieve positive outcomes. This research study was designed to develop knowledge on how to build aspiration with homeless young people by capturing the practice wisdom of experienced workers. It offers explanation as to why low aspiration may have developed and how it might be built. In this way it adds to the body of literature demonstrating how it might be possible for social workers to raise the aspiration of vulnerable young people.

Several recommendations are made:

Fill time with constructive, adult led activities such as educational programs that build skills, confidence, and hope.

Get young people to think about future possibilities and explore their aspirations.

Address low aspiration by improving the psychological state of the young person through social support that builds self-esteem. This includes projecting and building hope for their futures through strong social support and a focus on building belief and confidence in themselves.

Provide opportunities, options and knowledge in practical and supportive ways but create realistic expectations to avoid future disappointment.

This study shows that such practice not only raises the aspirations of young people but can reduce anti-social behavior as focus shifts, time is filled, and they begin to engage in pro-social activities. In this way, building aspiration not only leads to better educational and vocational outcomes but protects against negative consequences associated with low aspiration.