It’s estimated that there are up to 280,000 people that are recorded as homeless across the UK.
There is still a lot of stigma attached to homelessness, with more than a quarter of people from an Evolve survey believing that people that are those that are homeless have themselves to blame.
The truth is that homelessness can affect any of us, often through no fault of our own.
Homelessness happens for a variety of reasons.
Many people become homeless simply because they can’t afford rising rents from their landlords. Some people leaving prison, or the armed forces have nowhere to call home. Others become homeless to escape domestic abuse or violent relationships.
The implications of homelessness can be serious, including mental health issues, an increased risk of being involved in violent incidents, and an increased suicide risk.
Help The Homeless Leicester: Supporting those in need since 2014.
One charity that is helping to support people affected by homelessness in Leicester is Help The Homeless Leicester, led by Arif Voraji.
The charity runs a number of ongoing projects including food banks for the homeless, ‘Open Door’ which provides short term crisis support for those facing homelessness, ‘B&B and Beyond’ that provides support for the first-time homeless, and ‘Working In Partnership’ which helps build relationships and co-ordinate efforts to tackle homelessness across different services and organisations in Leicester.
Everything Community arranges support for a charity bike ride to Amsterdam.
We’ve been working with Help The Homeless Leicester since for several years and we’ve built a strong relationship with Arif and the team.
When we were catching up with Arif earlier on this year, he explained that his latest fundraising idea was a sponsored cycle from King Power Stadium in Leicester to Ajax Arena in Amsterdam.
Their aim was to have a team of riders cycle over 200 miles over 3 days and raise a target of £50,000 in the process. Any funds raised were going to be split between Help The Homeless Leicester (80%) and Crohns and Colitis UK (20%) which was a cause close to one of the rider’s hearts.
Everything Branded (the promotional merchandise arm of Everything Global) agreed to sponsor the cycle ride and donated £1000 to help their fundraising efforts.
As part of the fundraising activities for the ride, Help The Homeless Leicester arranged a family fun day, and needed support to help run the event.
We were delighted to offer our support, and our CEO (Paul), CSR Manager (Claire) and one of our international fulfilment staff went along to help on the day. It was an absolute blast and our families really enjoyed it – and there were some really generous donations from those in attendance.
A great send-off for the 72-hour challenge.
The event captured the imagination of the team in the Everything Global office, and it was great to see quite a few of our team members down at the King Power stadium on date to support the riders as they set off on their three-day journey.
It was such an amazing atmosphere, and it was great to see the Everything Branded logo on the riders’ jerseys and some of the support vehicles.
Some local press were there for the send-off, and the event was covered in the Leicester Mercury.
Cycle for the homeless: still accepting donations.
All 12 of the cyclists made it to the Ajax stadium within the 72-hour target, which is a pretty impressive feat!
On the return to Leicester, Arif came into our offices to present us with our own cycling jersey to commemorate the event and thank us for our support.
This was such a kind gesture, and the jersey now hangs pride of place in ????
At the time of writing, the ‘Cycle for the homeless’ event has raised the incredible amount of £38,000, which is going to make a huge difference to both Help The Homeless and Crohn’s and Colitis UK.
The fundraising page is still open on Givebrite, for any readers that would like to donate to the cause.
Does your charity need support?
Everything Community manages the social responsibility and community support initiatives of Everything Global.
If you’re a registered charity and want to talk about how we can potentially work together, we’d love to hear from you at hello@everythingcommunity.org
We’re keen on helping all charities and community causes where we can, but we prioritise requests from smaller charities and those that are local to the Leicester area.
More about Help The Homeless Leicester
After starting out in 2014 by donating clothing to the homeless from the boot of a car, Help The Homeless Leicester has expanded its capabilities to support the homeless across in the city year on year.
There is now a dedicated team of eight people within the charity, led by Arif Voraji.
The charity works to provide relief and assistance to people who are homeless, facing homelessness or rough sleeping.
Help The Homeless Leicester support with a variety of programmes, including providing food and essentials to anyone that may need them, helping people connect with the relevant support services, and providing emergency accommodation for rough sleepers.
To find out more about their great work, please contact: https://www.hthleicester.co.uk/
