Chestertons funds new homelessness programme

Chestertons has funded a groundbreaking new programme set up by its charity partner, St Mungo’s, which recruits volunteers to tackle the number of people sleeping rough in London.

The agency has funded the full-time employment of a new ‘Volunteer Coordinator’ for St Mungo’s pool of volunteers to allow the charity to launch its ‘First Response’ programme. The programme aims to reduce long term homelessness by streamlining the outreach service, meaning locating and engaging with people rough sleeping is faster.

First Response also gives trained outreach workers more time to encourage people sleeping rough to use the support services to help them move away from the streets into supported living.

Since recruiting the Chestertons-funded Volunteer Coordinator, the programme has proved a phenomenal success with over 150 Londoners signing up to volunteer for morning or evening shifts. These new volunteers have already clocked up 615 hours helping to locate people sleeping rough across the capital.

Giles Milner, Marketing Director at Chestertons’ said, “This programme is the biggest project we have been involved with and we are very excited to work with St Mungo’s to reduce homelessness across London. We hope to get some of our clients involved over the coming months too!”