Living in the community
About the project
Aims
Improve the health of Leicester’s homeless population
- Reduce barriers to the homeless population accessing services
- Reduce stigma in healthcare
- Increase awareness of homelessness
Every year many homeless people receive health promotion and advice from students working for project LIGHT.
Charity leadership
Project LIGHT is overseen by three academics at the University of Leicester Medical School:
- Professor Elizabeth (Liz) Andersen, Lead for Patient Safety and Interprofessional Education
- Steve Malcherczyk, Lecturer in Medical Ethics and Law
- Dr Andy Ward, Associate Professor in Medical Education and Honorary Senior Academic GP.
The charity also has a part-time Coordinator, Nicole Bergman.
The leadership team can be reached at Projectlight@leicester.ac.uk.
Research
- Learning through working with homeless people (PDF, 229kb)
- Making international links to further interprofessional learning: a student-led initiative for the homeless population (PDF, 79kb)
Student feedback
It can happen to anyone and that’s what people don’t really realise. They’re not these people that are different and that’s why homelessness has happened to them. Actually they’re just normal and life got a bit rubbish.
That’s something you see all the way through Project LIGHT, you realise that actually everyone is quite similar and they’re no different to us really. Just in a different circumstance.
It’s really eye opening. You're taught the theory that anyone can become homeless.
It has made me a lot more aware of how I approach questions. It helps you interact with this type of patient.
I think everyone should have done it, as you learn a great deal before you go into clinical practice.