Mission:HOME is a grassroots initiative helping communities to understand the issue of homelessness and the need for permanent homes for families experiencing long-term homelessness in Brighton & Hove.

 

Every night in Brighton & Hove, more than 2,800 people go to sleep in temporary accommodation. Half of them are children who sleep in cramped, unsuitable rooms, sometimes sharing kitchens with strangers, keeping their belongings in bags because the next move could come at any moment.

 

These families are not statistics. They are schoolmates, neighbours, and members of our community, living with an average eight-year wait for the stability and dignity of a permanent home. 

 

Mission:HOME exists because, with greater understanding and compassion, communities can help create the conditions for families to move into safe, permanent homes.

 

Across the city, small under-used spaces already exist where permanent family housing could be delivered. What is often missing is public understanding, community confidence, and a clear, human narrative that helps residents see how secure homes strengthen neighbourhoods and support children’s wellbeing.

 

Mission:HOME helps create that voice-a calm, inclusive, youth-led voice rooted in compassion and the belief that every child deserves the safety of a permanent home.

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How it began

 

Scarlett Chapman, now 15, provides the youth voice of the initiative. She began raising awareness of homelessness at the age of eight. After seeing people sleeping rough on Brighton’s streets in December 2018, she determined to do something. She took to the streets of Brighton and busked to raise money for local homelessness charities, ultimately raising over £10,000 in the years that followed. Scarlett’s musical beginnings connect naturally with Prospero’s interest in how creativity and the arts foster empathy, connection, and social understanding.

 

In 2024, Scarlett decided to take her work further and, with the support of her family, established Mission:HOME.

 

Mission:HOME is a non-political initiative that focuses on public education and community inclusion.

 

Purpose & Activities

 

At the heart of Mission:HOME’s work is a simple but powerful aim: to educate communities about family homelessness and foster greater empathy and understanding. Many families in Brighton & Hove wait years in temporary accommodation before securing a safe, permanent home, yet the challenges they face are often misunderstood or unseen. These misunderstandings can lead to hesitation or opposition when new social housing is proposed in local neighbourhoods.

 

Mission:HOME seeks to gently address this by helping residents understand the realities of homelessness, the importance of stable housing for children, and the positive impact that welcoming new families can have on a community. Their approach is calm, compassionate, and rooted in public education-helping to prevent the misunderstandings that can lead to NIMBYism, and instead encouraging confidence, neighbourliness, and inclusion.

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Mission:HOME does not build housing or take political positions. Its work centres on public understanding, including:

 

• Educational content explaining the realities of family homelessness  

• Reducing stigma and misconceptions through accessible storytelling  

• Encouraging compassion, inclusion and neighbourliness  

• Helping residents feel informed about local housing challenges  

• Sharing lived-experience stories in safe and respectful ways  

• Positive community messaging about welcoming families into permanent homes  

• Creating digital content that explains issues clearly and sensitively  

• Light-touch community conversations to build understanding  

 

How YOU can help

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To date, all work has been privately funded, with appropriate adult oversight and safeguarding. But now it's time to scale up. That's why we need your help. A donation of any size would be a tremendous boost to the efforts of Mission: HOME. Prospero World (UK registered charity number 1163952) is delighted to support Mission: HOME's charitable work by receiving charitable donations on their behalf through our fiscal sponsorship programme, and providing governance and charitable oversight. Thank you for your support.