Case Study: HOPE Community Services

Renovations are now complete at Nottinghamshire’s HOPE Community Services thanks to the generosity of CRASH and its Patron and supporting companies.

The project saw the creation of six bedrooms at St Ranulph House providing much needed move-on accommodation for former homeless people those who are ready to take the next step back to independence.

The need

CRASH has been supporting HOPE for a number of years. They provide a vital service in Worksop and have helped many individuals off the streets and supported them in their journey to re-establish themselves within the community.

Homelessness has doubled in the last three years, and local services are under pressure with austerity biting hard. CRASH focussed on building positive relationships between suppliers and HOPE. The team understands the needs of their donors and beneficiaries and provide a business like and mutually beneficial relationship.

Alan Diggles

CEO of HOPE Community Services

The solution

One person is Ian who came to HOPE because he had been sleeping on the streets after his marriage broke down. He could not stay with his family as they had no room so had nowhere else to turn.

Ian stayed at HOPE’s Hostel for several months where he made new friendships and his self-confidence improved greatly. During his time in the Hostel, he developed his independent living skills through volunteering and helped with cooking, cleaning and gardening, and even painting areas of the building. This not only helped Ian make meaningful use of his time, but also to focus on positives – what he could do rather than what he could not.

Eventually, Ian moved on into low support accommodation and now feels much more settled. He has successfully maintained this tenancy for a number of months and, is currently in the process of becoming a volunteer with HOPE, to “give something back”.

If it wasn’t for Hope I would probably still be on the streets. The staff are really approachable and I felt like I could put my trust in them to support me through a really tough time in my life.

Ian

Past HOPE resident

How patrons helped

CRASH awarded the project a cash grant of £10,000 which was added to considerably with donations of expertise and building materials from CRASH Patrons British Gypsum, Buildbase, A Plant, Dulux Trade, Morrisroe and Hanson.

CRASH supporters Baxi and Marley Eternit also helped by providing a boiler and roof tiles free of charge. The total value of CRASH’s support was £26,286.

The social impact

The improvements made to the building will help HOPE to keep up their amazing work supporting those who’re most vulnerable and had provided them with more space to house those in need.