Corby homeless project given funding boost from housing provider

East Northamptonshire Community Services manages Corby's homeless hostel
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Corby s homeless project has been gifted thousands of pounds from a county housing provider to help their work at the town's hostel.

East Northamptonshire Community Services (ENCS) has secured £4,874 from Longhurst Group as part of its Community Grants Fund.

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The charity, which runs services to support those facing homelessness, poverty and addiction, provides two homeless accommodations schemes and various outreach projects and food banks.

l-r Lucy Brooks from East Northamptonshire Community Services and Sareeta Sharma, Longhurst Group Community Investment Lead and Jo Burns East Northamptonshire Community Servicesl-r Lucy Brooks from East Northamptonshire Community Services and Sareeta Sharma, Longhurst Group Community Investment Lead and Jo Burns East Northamptonshire Community Services
l-r Lucy Brooks from East Northamptonshire Community Services and Sareeta Sharma, Longhurst Group Community Investment Lead and Jo Burns East Northamptonshire Community Services

Jo Burns, ENCS operations manager, said: “This grant from Longhurst Group gives us the resilience as a charity to ensure we provide the best continuous service for our clients. This is a brilliant initiative from an organisation like Longhurst Group to be giving back to the communities within which they work, and another way to help clients that very often access Longhurst Group properties as well.

“We’re reliant on funding from organisations to keep our services working and grants like this enable us to ensure we’re able to help more people. We’re incredibly grateful for the opportunity to be supported by them and to be successful with this new funding.

“This grant is special to us as it is unrestricted and allows us to contribute towards general running costs of our Corby Homeless Project. These costs allow our staff to do key work with clients, to address their barriers to housing whether that is financial; poor physical and mental health; addictions; difficulty budgeting or with life admin or simply unable to maintain a tenancy for whatever reason.

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The money will help them continue to provide the best service possible and the organisation has described the Community Grants Fund as 'a brilliant initiative'

l-r Louise Danielczuk, fundraising and marketing manager at Northampton Hope Centre, and Sareeta Sharma, Longhurst Group community investment lead.l-r Louise Danielczuk, fundraising and marketing manager at Northampton Hope Centre, and Sareeta Sharma, Longhurst Group community investment lead.
l-r Louise Danielczuk, fundraising and marketing manager at Northampton Hope Centre, and Sareeta Sharma, Longhurst Group community investment lead.

Jo added: “We also could not do the work we do without creating a warm, welcoming, safe home whilst people reside with us as this makes a huge difference to individuals; this grant will allow us to do this.”

In the same round of funding, Northampton Hope Centre also received £4,880, as part of the programme which encourages not-for-profit groups and charities to apply for grants of up to £5,000.

The Hope Centre supports those living in poverty and offers immediate crisis support through its HandUp service for the homeless, offering a drop-in service of support, with a move-on programme to support housing and personal development. They work to enable individuals to live independently and look towards an independent life with fulfilment and employment.

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This Learning4Living programme is also available to the wider community and is supplemented by the FoodClub, which provides low cost food through the charity’s social supermarket.

Louise Danielczuk, fundraising and marketing manager, said: “In a year where charity has struggled financially and a year where the demand for services has sky-rocketed, we’re grateful beyond belief for the support.

“We’re overjoyed to be working with such a community minded organisation. The funding enables us to link the HandUp and Learning4Living programmes, resulting in the opportunity to make a real difference for those whose life has taken them to the street.

“The difference the support from Longhurst Group is making is real, it’s tangible and it’ll help create a better future for those most in need in our community.”

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Karen Prince, head of community programmes at Longhurst Group, which has an office in Rushden, said: “We’re delighted to be able to provide this funding to support and bolster the fantastic work of a variety of organisations that work tirelessly to improve the lives of people across Northamptonshire.

“We know that many of these organisations have identified local need in their areas and many have experienced an increase in demand during the Coronavirus pandemic, so it’s great to know this funding will go some way to supporting them in providing their valued services.”

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