Launching our new 5 year strategy: Home + Hope

akt is proud to announce the launch of our new 5-year strategy.

With this weekend marking both World Homeless Day (10 Oct) and National Coming Out Day (11 Oct), we celebrate the joy queer people experience when they are able to live as their authentic selves—but we’re also reminded of the many LGBTQ+ young people who still don’t feel safe to come out.

We see a lot of them at the start of their journey; many cite family issues and threats of abuse or violence related to their identity as the reason they’re at risk of or experiencing homelessness. They’ve been let down by the system and often by other services first, before turning to akt for help.

Today, we’re launching our new 5-year strategy, Home and Hope, to get more LGBTQ+ 16-25 year olds into safe and stable homes by scoping out sustainable pathways for change. Produced in collaboration with our young people and our supporters, this strategy reaffirms our commitment to lowering rates of LGBTQ+ youth homelessness through prevention, digital and legal support, advocacy work, passionate people, and most of all: listening to what young people really need.

We call our 2026–2031 strategy Home + Hope because young people need both: a safe, stable place to call home and the opportunity to thrive, not simply survive. Our vision and mission remain unchanged. We will continue to provide expert, LGBTQ+ specific, person-first support while improving our services, responding to changing needs and sharing effective practice beyond akt.  

A note from our CEO, Adam

Today, after consulting extensively with young people, colleagues, supporters and those we work with, we are proud to share akt’s plan for the next five years which will guide our work up to the 40^th anniversary of our founding in 2029 and beyond.

We’ve called our new strategy Home + Hope because that is what young LGBTQ+ people forced to choose between a safe place to live and being who they are tell us that they need:

A home where they feel secure and able to build a life.

And hope that they can find their way to a fulfilling and successful future.

Home + Hope builds on the amazing things that akt does every day to transform the lives of young LGBTQ+ people who are homeless, at risk of homelessness or living in a hostile environment. We intend to keep doing that great work but also to go further in response to what young people today and tomorrow tell us they need and how they want to be supported.

It’s a tough challenge for charities like ours to rise to meet the needs of young LGBTQ+ people living in an increasingly hostile world. But through Home + Hope we are responding to that by doing what akt does best – being practical, listening to what young people tell us, taking things one step at a time and learning as we go. And maybe even improvising a little bit, The A-Team style!

It’s ambitious and there is lots to do. But I believe that Home + Hope points us in the right direction so akt can progress towards our shared vision of a world where no young person has to choose between a safe home and being who they are.

I hope you will come with us on that journey.

Adam Pemberton Wickham (he/him)
CEO of akt