Understanding Supported Living: One Family’s Experience with Avenues

Monday 8th of September 2025

“Supported living gave our daughters the chance to live the lives they want” – a parent’s perspective on planning for the future with Avenues

Thinking about supported living? Mandy shares her daughters Emily and Tori’s journey with Avenues, hoping their experience can help other families considering the move.

When Mandy and Nigel’s daughters Emily and Tori were in their early twenties, the family began thinking seriously about the future.

Both of their daughters have complex needs and require 24-hour support, but their parents wanted them to live with independence, choice, and community.

In 2016, after years of planning and support from Avenues, Emily and Tori moved into their own flats in a new supported living service in Tunbridge Wells.

Mandy explained: “We as a family didn’t want residential care for them. We wanted them to be able to make choices as to what their lives looked like, and how they would like to live their life.”

The transition was carefully planned. The same staff who had supported Emily and Tori at home were there to help them move, easing the change for both the family and the sisters.

Mandy recalled: “Then came moving day for them. This was without doubt the hardest day of my life, I was a wreck, but it was a day that had to come. I had to get through it. My heart was broken but we needed to make sure that as Nigel and I got older, the girls’ dreams and care needs were going to be met.”

Life in supported living

For Emily and Tori, supported living has meant freedom to follow their own passions while having their needs fully met.

Emily loves swimming and goes twice a week. As a wheelchair user, it’s been both physically beneficial and a way to make friends. A local group of older ladies she met at the pool are even learning Makaton to communicate with her.

Tori is a keen dancer and loves discos. Twice a month, she goes to a nightclub that hosts safe themed nights for people with additional needs.

“She has many boyfriends at the nightclub and always looks forward to her late nights,” said Mandy.

The sisters also enjoy a busy social life with trips to garden centres, zoos, and shopping, as well as time at home with friends. Wednesday takeaway nights and Sunday roasts are firm favourites.

“There is nothing better than as a parent to know that your two daughters are living life to the full, having fun, creating friendships, and importantly being the unique and amazing young ladies that they are,” Mandy said.

Supported living doesn’t mean living alone

Mandy is keen to challenge a common misconception about supported living.

“The biggest misconception that we have encountered is that people seem to think, even in the social care sector, that supported living is someone living alone,” she said. “But this is not the case. It’s a needs-led service, and a service that should be bespoke to the individual.”

For some, that means a few hours of support a week. For others, like Emily and Tori, it means 24-hour support. What matters is that the service is built around the person.

Advice to other families

Mandy acknowledges that the journey wasn’t easy, but says it was worth it.

“Yes, it is scary and it’s not something that any of us parents signed up to when we had children,” said Mandy. “But what we can do is make the right choice for our children and give them the best possible chance in life to live independently of us through supported living.”

To find out more about current supported living vacancies with Avenues, visit www.avenuesgroup.org.uk/our-support/.