CHARITY OF THE WEEK: Harrogate Homeless Project looking for support from the community in their 30th anniversary year

Harrogate Homeless Project gives those who are experiencing homelessness a safe place to stay and a chance to gain skills, confidence and move towards independent living.

The organisation was founded in 1992 to reduce the number of people sleeping rough across the district and provide sustained support towards independence.

The project operates from two different sites across the district, including a hostel located on Bower Street which can accommodate up to 16 individuals in single rooms.

Springboard Day Centre, based on Oxford Street, provides food, shower and washing facilities, skills workshops, activities, psychotherapy, a GP and other medical and therapeutic services.

Their staff are always on hand to offer people support with their housing situation and practical help with applications and access to many other services.

This year will mark the 30th anniversary of the Harrogate Homeless Project and Jenni Moulson, Chair of Trustees, believes it will provide an opportunity to increase people’s understanding of how the charity works and inspire them to fundraise to support the next stage of the charity’s journey.

She said: “I think there are quite a lot of misconceptions about homelessness and how we help and people are often surprised to discover that much of our work involves delivering services that help our clients on their journey towards independence and a life off the streets.

“Our psychotherapy, counselling and day centre services are key to this and we don’t charge our clients for the support they receive, even though these services are costly for us to provide.

“That’s why we are so reliant on financial donations from local people and businesses because without this funding we quite simply couldn’t do what we do.”

Jenni believes the local community has a strong desire to help the charity make a positive difference as the needs of its clients evolve.

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She added: “The 30th anniversary is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate how much we have achieved but it is also a time to be ambitious as we look ahead to the future and the changing needs of those we support.

“The work we do goes beyond providing emergency shelter and we are very focused on providing people with long term solutions that tackle the causes of homelessness and give them the support they need as individuals, whatever that may mean for each person.”

“As we move forward from the pandemic, we expect to see an increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness in the Harrogate district and we need the support of our local communities to keep our current services running and expand to meet future needs - and that means more fundraising.”

Looking ahead to the future, Jenni would like to see the project develop even further and provide even more support for those who are suffering from homelessness.

She said: “We’d love to be able to offer basic cookery classes, nutritional advice, literacy and numeracy classes and IT skills sessions.

“One important area we’d like to expand is in providing more structured independent living skills such as budgeting, dealing with bills and appointment keeping as well as interview skills.

“Our support team already provides this help to our clients but we would like to expand it and open it up more.”

There are thousands of ways to fundraise for the Harrogate Homeless Project - the possibilities are endless.

Every penny that they raise supports the services local homeless adults across the district need to help them towards a life off the streets.

Their team of dedicated volunteers play an essential role in supporting staff at the facilities, and they rely on their help to keep many of the services running.

If you think you can help and would like to find out more information, visit https://www.harrogate-homeless-project.org.uk/get-involved/ or you can email them at [email protected]

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