Renovations Needed at The Upper Room

The Upper Room is a front line homelessness charity, based in west London which began life as a simple soup kitchen in 1990. The charity attends to the immediate survival needs of homeless men and women using the provision of food as the first point of contact before providing access to employability projects and a broad range of onward referrals to other specialist organisations.

The need

With a mission statement of ‘improving lives’, The Upper Room approached CRASH for help with improving facilities so that they could help even more people.

The solution

The plans involved converting the existing mezzanine level currently only accessible by a ladder and used for storage into a meeting room.

How patrons helped

A Structural Engineer from CRASH Patron AECOM visited the project and confirmed that the idea was a viable one as the mezzanine level has adequate head height. However, the need to install a new staircase meant that the area on the floor below needed to be reconfigured.

Fellow Patron Areen Design came on board and are progressing with plans for a new layout which means that The Upper Room will soon be able to provide services in a safe, warm and friendly environment to greater numbers in need of their support.

The social impact

UR4Meals feeds 90-120 people, five days a week, as well as providing free clothing and bedding, volunteer opportunities, support with health and housing, onward referrals and reconnection services

UR4Jobs aims to break the cycle of un-employability and homelessness by providing a personalised mix of administrative expertise, entry level skills training, motivational courses, bilingual counselling and access to legitimate jobs.

UR4Driving aims to reduce recidivism among 30 young ex-offenders a year by teaching them to drive in return for voluntary work and then treating their new driving licences as vocational qualifications for work in transport and warehousing.