Earlier this year, as part of our Forward Community Programme, each of our offices got together to talk about what was important to them and created a short list of charities they would like to support. One charity was then chosen by a vote in each office and this is the charity that office will support until the end of March 2022.
Our choices for 2020-2022 are:
- Bristol: Help Bristol Homeless a charity that supports homeless and raising awareness of homelessness in Bristol by providing a gated community of 15 self contained flats.
- Cambridge: East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices, which cares for children and young people with life-threatening conditions across Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk, and supports their families.
- London: Shelter from the Storm, an emergency night shelter located not far from our London office, providing bed, dinner and breakfast for 38 homeless people every night of the year.
- Manchester: The Christie Charitable Fund , a Manchester based hospital, which provides cancer care, research and education.
- Munich: KARLA 51 Women’s Shelter, a Munich based, women only shelter supporting women and children and providing beds for 55 women each night.
Read below for more details about how we are working with these charities.
Bristol
Set up by Jasper Thompson, this charity has a mission to change the face of homelessness in Bristol. Unlike many homeless charities, their ethos is that housing must come first, and then everything else comes after. They believe that the priority must be to get people into safe, stable and comfortable accommodation. From there, they can help them to improve their own lives and reach their potential.
Help Bristol Homeless build temporary accommodation, to be used by residents while they access the help they need to secure a permanent home. By providing users with the security and dignity that everyone deserves, they are empowered to take an active role in improving their situation. Their mission is to get homeless people off the street first, and then give them a helping hand in the right direction.
"Homelessness as an issue is not getting any better and it's going to get progressively worse. We have a tried and tested format for helping homeless people, be they rough sleepers or sofa surfers, part of the hidden homeless, in the form of shipping containers. When people think of these, they think of a metal box - our units are far from that. The biggest reaction we get to our flats when we have visitors to the project is 'this is better than my flat!'. They are very comfortable, they're secure, warm and are exactly what someone who is coming off the streets needs on their pathway to recovery. Once on board with us, we will help signpost individuals to other help such as employment, a move to a permanent address or recovery through other charities such as Bristol Day Project or MIND and other wellbeing centres." Comments Jasper.
Mewburn Ellis has made an initial donation of £15,000 and plans to work with the charity to fundraise on their behalf and provide volunteers to help with decorating and gardening. We also plan to fully fund a shipping container that costs £21,000 to buy and fit out if we can. We're some way down the line with the firm's donation of £15,000 and we hope to raise more funds through local office fundraising, with the aim of hitting the £21,000 target.
Cambridge
East Anglia's Children's Hospices (EACH)
EACH offers care and support for children and young people with life-threatening conditions and supports families across Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk. They offer families flexibility and control over where they receive their care and support, including where their child dies; at home, in hospital or at one of three hospices at Milton (Cambridge), The Nook (Norfolk) and The Treehouse (Ipswich).
Mewburn Ellis are targeting support at their short break care programme and through our donation we could fund up to 15 shot break care sessions right now. These are delivered in the hospice, the community ort the family home and aim to ease the pressure of caring for a child or young person 24/7. This allows parents to recharge, safe in the knowledge that their child is receiving expert care and attention.
We plan to do more to and hope to fundraise in our Cambridge office to raise further funds. Every £1,000 we raise could provide another short break and so we hope to enable more children and young people to benefit from these sessions. We also have plans when its safe to do so to visit the EACH site in Milton and volunteer for the day helping with maintenance and gardening and hopefully generally making ourselves useful! You can track our fundraising progress on our Just Giving page.
“EACH are so pleased to be benefitting from the support of Mewburn Ellis! Their generosity will help us care for local-life-threatened children and their families, during this challenging time and beyond. We cannot wait to work with them over the next two years.” – Emily Rose, Assistant Corporate Fundraiser at EACH
London
Shelter from the Storm was founded in Islington in 2007 by Sheila Scott and Louie Salvoni to provide shelter and support for the homeless and dispossessed from anywhere. They’d both raised and educated their families in Islington but were shocked that in this seemingly prosperous borough they were virtually walking over rough sleepers to get to the supermarket, they were sleeping in doorways and the beautiful Georgian squares.
Shelter from the Storm is their response to some of the most marginalised people in our society who are living literally on our doorsteps. They started with one night in a church hall, now their shelter operates every night of the year, completely free to guests. Their mission is to house and support the homeless in London whoever they are, wherever they come from and their vision is of a society where charities like Shelter from the Storm are no longer necessary.
Mewburn Ellis has made an initial donation of £5,000 to help fund their activities and we plan to work more actively with Shelter from the Storm to provide more funds and practical help through volunteering once our people are back in our London office.
Sheila Scott says, “Shelter from the Storm is needed now more than ever and the support of Mewburn Ellis is invaluable in helping us care for some of the most marginalised people in society”.
Manchester
The Christie are the largest single site cancer centre in Europe, treating more than 44,000 patients a year. Their forward-thinking nature and desire to constantly innovate their services for the benefits of patients guides everything they do.
They have more than 100 years of expertise in cancer care, research and education and use their experience wisely to ensure they remain at the forefront of cancer care. The Christie is one of the top 10 cancer centres in the world, serving a population of 3.2 million people across Greater Manchester and Cheshire. As a national cancer specialist, around 26% of their patients are referred to them from other parts of the UK.Mewburn Ellis has made a donation to help fund The Christie Friend's Fund. The total fund available per year is usually £23,000. Mewburn Ellis has so far provided £15,000. As of August 2020 the fund total was £18,000 so a further £5,000 is still needed to fully fund this pot. We hope to fundraise within our Manchester office to provide even more funds and help The Christie reach their £23K target. You can track our progress on our Just Giving page.
The Friend's Fund provides emergency one off grants to patients who are in most need of financial help when in and leaving hospital. The patients or their families are referred to the fund by their care team when they are identified to be in or facing financial difficulty. It can help with simple things such as transport costs to and from the hospital or more specific needs such as those patients who may now be reliant on benefits due to being unable to work as a result of their treatment.
Munich
KARLA 51 is a women only shelter supporting women and children and providing beds for 55 women each night. It provides women (with or without children), advice and an emergency room around the clock in its house as well as use of it's café. The facility has 55 single rooms in total, two of which are handicapped accessible. The employees of KARLA 51 also advise homeless women who spend the night in the urban shelter for a short time and accompany them on their way to finding longer-term accommodation.
Mewburn Ellis has made an initial donation of £5,000 to help fund their activities and we plan to work more actively with KARLA 51 to provide more funds and practical help through volunteering once our people are fully back in our Munich office.
