Centrepoint (charity)

Centrepoint is a charity in the United Kingdom, which provides accommodation and support to homeless people from 16 to 25. Its mission is to end youth homelessness and its vision is to get homeless young people into a home and a job.

Prince William has been a patron of the organisation since 2005. His mother, Princess Diana, had been a patron until she died. It was William's first patronage.[1][2] Centrepoint's accommodation services include high to low-support hostels in London Bradford and Sunderland as well as supported flats and houses. It provides safe accommodation for care leavers, ex-offenders, young single parents and refugees. Many of its young people became homeless due to family breakdown.

Hostels and services

Centrepoint also provides learning and health support to homeless young people. Its learning team gets young people back into education or training and helps them get into work or apprenticeships. They also teach basic life skills, including cooking and budgeting. Its health team helps young people get physically fit, but also provides mental health support. This includes depression, eating disorders, self-harm and drug use.

Centrepoint works with hundreds of volunteers every year and runs a mentoring scheme, in which a volunteer supports a young person one on one for 12 months. It also works with partner organisations to help homeless young people in other areas and join forces to raise money through End Youth Homelessness.

In 2015-2016, Centrepoint supported over 9,000 homeless young people, 90% moving on successfully.

History

The charity was founded by the Reverend Kenneth Leech in 1969.[3][4] Leech said he saw the desperation of homeless and drug-using young people in London, which led him to open the doors of his church, St Anne’s Soho. He later helped set up Centrepoint’s first homeless hostel. Leech devoted much of his ministry to tackling homelessness and drug dependency. Along with Centrepoint, he also founded the Soho Drugs Group and was a director of the Runnymead Trust, which supports race equality.

Support

Centrepoint fundraises to provide homeless young people with learning, health and life-skills to live independently. It also lobbies government to influence policy-making to ensure homeless people's needs are considered. Centrepoint runs the Centrepoint Parliament - a group of elected homeless young people to hold the organisation to account and to campaign for the rights of homeless young people.

It's flagship fundraising event is Sleep Out, a November night in which people sleep out to raise awareness and money.

Centrepoint's galas have included special guests such as Taylor Swift and Jon Bon Jovi.

Centrepoint's ambassadors include Radio 1 DJ Sara Cox, actress Lisa Maxwell and TV presenter Jonathan Ross.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/media/press-releases/prince-william-becomes-patron-of-the-tusk-trust
  2. ↑ http://www.centrepoint.org.uk/about-us/who-we-are
  3. ↑ Gould, Mark (2004-06-16). "Community spirit". London: guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 2008-01-06.
  4. ↑ "Homeless charity's call for help". BBC Online. 2004-12-16. Retrieved 2008-01-06.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/14/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.