Vital Regeneration's Homelessness, Employability and Learning Project (HELP), which guides people in homeless households towards work and further education, has received a generous sponsorship award from Crown Promotions.

Crown Promotions, a private limited company, provides removal and storage facilities including storage for people living in temporary accommodation (TA).  The HELP project engages with people who are currently living in TA, or newly identified as homeless, and builds tailored pathways back to positive economic activity.  As such there were real synergies for both the business and our charity.
 
The sponsorship will enable the HELP project to continue working with clients across Westminster's most deprived neighbourhoods, to create effective pathways to sustainable employment.  Westminster has a unique homelessness prevention challenge, with 3000 individuals and/or families in temporary accommodation. 
 
Judith McKee, HELP Project Manager commented,
 
“We are delighted to receive this generous donation from Crown Promotions.  We find it encouraging that a private company values our work, and is helping us support people in temporary accommodation in Westminster by sponsoring our project.  Many thanks to the team at Crown Promotions!”
 
Steve Puddick, Director of Crown Promotions commented,
 
“We are really pleased to support Vital Regeneration’s great work in our communities.  It is only through projects like these that we can truly reduce poverty.  We look forward to supporting Vital Regeneration’s projects in the future.”
 
Funds from the sponsorship will support Vital Regeneration’s work through:

• Working with 300 clients living in temporary accommodation on an economic pathway including training, volunteering, work placements and ultimately sustainable jobs

• Providing vocational training courses, childcare costs, travel costs, basic skills (literacy & numeracy) provision, clothes for interviews and self-esteem building workshops

• Delivering job seekers’ coffee afternoons where clients can benefit from resources such as newspapers, publications, listings, as well as access to a laptops, Internet, phone access and opportunities to build social networks and gain peer support

• Hosting our 2009 Annual Awards Ceremony which brings the community together to showcase the achievements of our programmes throughout the year