Centrepoint

A huge thank you to all the walkers, footballers and rounders players from our partner Coventry Building Society, who have raised an amazing £10,000 over the past few months to support homeless young people. This is on top of their ambitious target of raising and donating a million pounds, every year for three years, to support our vital work to end youth homelessness. 🧡 💙

Andrew is a former Centrepoint resident, and he cycled from London to Brighton to raise money to help other young people and give back after all the support he received. “I only had a month for training. It was pretty nerve wracking, but I took on the challenge. The other cyclists were amazing and I made friends with people along the route. I did a great time of 3hrs 39 minutes. I was really pleased with that because a pro-cyclist would take 2-3 hours so I feel like I did well. I was really proud of myself. About 40 miles in we had to ride up Ditchling Beacon and that was hard work. I didn’t come off but I crawled up. I had a cool guy next to me encouraging me. It took a while but I got to the top and the views were amazing. It was kind of a bit of a metaphor for my own journey. It’s been an uphill struggle, but now it feels more like I have perspective and it’s an easier ride. I really wanted to give back to Centrepoint in a way that suited me. I wanted to promote the organisation that helped me whilst also challenging myself. It was also fitting that I did it on Fathers’ Day. I’ve said before that my late father helps me strive to overcome my barriers. I just kept on going for him. I wanted to see the end. I want to do it again and beat my time!” Thank you, Andrew - you smashed it and we’re very grateful for your support! 🧡 If you’d like to support Andrew’s fundraising and help young people experiencing homelessness, please donate: https://bit.ly/3S6EURn

Are you a Nationwide Building Society member? We need your help! We’ve launched a new partnership with Nationwide Building Society as part of their Fairer Futures programme – and to celebrate, they’re donating £1 for every vote received at their Annual General Meeting, up to £500,000! The money will be shared evenly across their three new charity partners – or, if you’re eligible, you can donate your £1 just to us! You just need to tick the box next to Centrepoint when you vote. Learn more about how we’re working together to end youth homelessness: https://bit.ly/3zBG4y2

It’s always amazing to see our Patron, Prince William, shining a light on homelessness – and this exhibition and documentary are powerful ways to showcase the stories of people with lived experience, grow understanding and inspire action. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3zySwi2

 “We can’t continue letting young people down, particularly those served an especially raw deal through homelessness. The next government can shift the dial and focus on policies supporting young people into sustained employment. We’ve a huge pool of untapped resource; young people who want to make something of themselves and to thrive in sustainable careers, but we don’t have the structures in place to support them. The next administration must commit to a strategy for ending youth homelessness and put employment at the forefront of their thinking.” Alicia Lily Walker, our Head of Policy, Research and Campaigns, is breaking down our new research into young people’s employment barriers and aspirations.

1,139 people aged under 25 slept rough in London last year – a devastating figure. Charities & political leaders can only do so much when the problem is getting worse. The next Prime Minister needs to commit to a fully funded strategy to end youth homelessness.

We polled 1,000 young people across the UK and found that nearly a third of them don’t feel confident that they will achieve their employment goals, and only 66% believe they have the right skills for the jobs they want. We also surveyed more than 200 young people who have experienced homelessness, and 36% of them shared they weren’t confident they would achieve their career goals either. As well as facing barriers like a lack of experience, availability of local jobs, mental health problems and the cost of living, young people who live in supported accommodation are also held back by housing benefit rules that leave them worse off if they work more hours. Young people want to work, and we can’t continue to let young people down like this. We’re urging the next government to ensure young people receive more support and opportunities to get into employment – and help them to fulfil their potential. This includes changing the housing benefit taper rate that disincentivises young people from working, and extending the National Minimum or Living Wage to apprentices of all ages to reflect experience gained after the first year. We also want to see businesses supported to introduce innovative employment schemes and apprenticeships that are designed around young people living in supported accommodation, so they can leave homelessness behind them and achieve their dreams. Ending youth homelessness is complex, but it starts with a job and a home. Learn more about our new research: https://bit.ly/4cCryUK

This General Election is a chance for the next government to support young people to leave homelessness behind and achieve their full potential. We’ve reviewed the party manifestos to see which policies could help to tackle the youth homelessness crisis – check our blog post to find out more. https://lnkd.in/ez7XuUCi

We are thrilled to see Nick Maughan CBE recognised in King Charles’ Birthday Honours List this weekend for services to Philanthropy. Nick has generously supported Centrepoint over the last few years through his foundation, The Nick Maughan Foundation - NMF.org. We have also been partnered with the foundation’s Boxwise programme, empowering young people through sport through boxing classes at Centrepoint services. Nick also held his own sponsored Sleep Out challenge last December, and is a true advocate for our mission of ending youth homelessness. We know how passionate Nick is about the philanthropic causes he is involved with, and so we couldn’t be happier that he has rightfully been recognised for the difference he is making. Congratulations, Nick!

It’s been a busy week in politics, with manifestos and policy promises galore. But overall, we’re underwhelmed by the lack of ambition to tackle the growing youth homelessness crisis and support young people in particular. We hoped for commitments to fund local authorities so that they’re better equipped to cope with rising youth homelessness levels – that's £330million a year in funding to improve assessments and support for young people facing homelessness. We wanted to see the housing crisis addressed, so young people can access affordable housing in social or private rented sectors. That means building 90,000+ social homes per year and regularly uprating local housing allowance rates. And we needed policies that improved access to employment for young people in supported accommodation – a future where they’re no longer trapped and dissuaded from work because of the systemic inequality in the benefit system. This general election is a chance for the next government to support young people to overcome the challenges created by homelessness and achieve their full potential. We’ve seen a range of promises from the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat manifestos – from ending rough sleeping and building more homes to reviewing Universal Credit and reforming apprenticeships rules. But the homelessness experienced by young people has its own unique challenges and while some attempts have been made to provide solutions to these, many pledges lack the important details needed to understand how young people specifically will benefit from these policies. Youth homelessness has risen by 12% since the last election. If you don’t want politicians to ignore the youth homelessness crisis, add your name and sign our manifesto: https://bit.ly/4cbsWh4