The Stewarts Foundation’s Charity of the Year support in 2023 will be granted to homelessness charities The Passage and Roundabout on a joint basis.
As in previous years, Stewarts staff nominated charities to receive the funding in 2023. Roundabout and The Passage were jointly shortlisted, and selected as Charities of the Year following a firmwide vote.
Representatives from The Passage spoke to our staff in London and from Roundabout to the Leeds office about the work they do.
Stuart Dench, Managing Partner at Stewarts, comments:
“In the midst of the current cost of living crisis, we will do all we can to protect the most vulnerable people in our society. I am very pleased that the Stewarts Foundation will be supporting The Passage and Roundabout, charities that do vital work within our communities in London and in the North.”
The Passage
The Passage is a London-based charity offering community services and accommodation 365 days a year. Currently running three accommodation centres with a fourth planned, the charity has seen demand for its services increase as the cost of living creates greater housing instability than ever before.
With over 40 years’ experience helping people, The Passage is also the first homelessness charity to highlight the links between modern slavery and homelessness in London, and develop a pioneering Toolkit to enable other homelessness organisations to give survivors the support they deserve.
The charity’s mission is to:
- Prevent street homelessness by intervening quickly before people reach crisis point.
- End street homelessness by providing innovative and tailor-made services that act with compassion and urgency.
- Advocate for those who feel they are not heard by amplifying their voice to bring about real systemic change
Emily Richmond, Senior Corporate Partnerships and Trading Manager at The Passage, comments:
“At The Passage, we believe everyone deserves a place to call home, so we are incredibly grateful to have been chosen as a Stewarts Charity of the Year for 2023, enabling us to help more people to find safe routes off the street and into stable accommodation.
Our experienced Resettlement Workers find out the cause of a person’s homelessness and help them to overcome these pressures to put an end to their homelessness for good. The impact of the cost-of-living crisis means that we are seeing a huge rise in people needing to access our services, in January alone there was a 46% increase in people coming to us for support.
With more people facing homelessness in London every day, we must ensure we can support everyone who needs our help. We won’t stop until we live in a society where street homelessness no longer exists, and everyone has a place to all home. Your donation will help us to get there.”
Roundabout
Roundabout is South Yorkshire’s local youth housing charity providing shelter, support and life skills to young people aged 16-25 who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. The charity supports over 350 young people every day, as well as delivering mediation and drop-in advice services and homeless education in schools.
Alongside providing emergency accommodation in their hostel, Roundabout supports young people in residential projects in Sheffield and Rotherham and provides key services delivering comprehensive programmes of training, involvement and empowerment to help to prepare young people for independent living.
The dominant driver leading to homelessness is poverty, manifesting in the socio-economic disadvantages experienced in particular by single people and families with children. Roundabout has increasingly focused on the prevention of homelessness, working more ‘upstream’ to reach young people and support families which might be at risk of experiencing homelessness in the future.
Emily Bush, Fundraising Manager at Roundabout, comments:
“Roundabout is delighted to have been chosen as a Stewarts Charity of the Year 2023. As a charity that supports homeless young people, we are sadly bracing ourselves for the almost inevitable effects of the financial pressures being placed on so many in society. Experience has taught us that we see an increase in homelessness when there are increased pressures on families, as the challenges of teenage family life are hugely intensified when financial pressures are so great.
Roundabout wants to make sure that we are here for the young people and families that need us moving forward, and your generous support will help us achieve that. We want to help families support each other where we can and prevent more people from becoming homeless, so thank you from all of us at Roundabout for helping us give these young people in our region a brighter future.”
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