Spring is firmly in the air but at St Martin’s Charity we have run the final totals on our Christmas Appeal which we are pleased reached its target of £1.9m, and in the year to March 2024 we have raised over £5m. A fantastic outcome, particularly given fundraising for charities is very competitive, but sadly ever more needed with the number of people experiencing homelessness at record levels.
The funds are already being put to good use across the UK. In the year to March 2024 we awarded 4,508 individual emergency grants directly supporting people to move away from homelessness and into new accommodation or through preventing their eviction.
We are funding projects in South Wales, Edinburgh and London trialing innovative approaches to helping people experiencing both mental ill-health and homelessness. Over the last three years we have been funding projects helping young people, families, those in the criminal justice system, rough sleepers in hospital and LGBTQ communities to move on from homelessness. We are taking the learning from this work and other evidence to develop a new fund we will launch later this year to help charities increase access to accommodation. And we continue to fund The Connection for its crucial work to address rough sleeping on the streets around the church where it remains the highest in the UK.
Central to helping someone move away from homelessness is the help of an experienced, empathetic and skilled support worker, yet too often they are overworked and undervalued. Our network in partnership with nine charities across the UK provides opportunities for frontline workers to connect and access vital training, support and knowledge sharing opportunities. We will also bring frontline workers together at our national conference and through our recent annual survey over 1300 shared their insights and concerns. As we did last year, we will share the findings with MPs and Government to make the case for changes to better support frontline workers and the services they run, whilst also shaping the training and support we offer ourselves.
None of our work would be possible without the support and donations small and large from supporters, including many in the congregation. We are very grateful to you all. If you ever want to know more about our work see smitfc.org or please ask the Charity team.
Duncan Shrubsole
