Well, you’re in luck!

With tickets at only £1 each, the Change a Life raffle is a fun and easy way to support the Centre, while giving you the chance to win great prizes! What’s more, your money will help young homeless people, struggling families and people living in poverty to Change their Life for the better.

Prizes:

- Grand Prize: A night for two at the 5* Corinthia Hotel, SW1A

- 2nd Prize: Joint annual membership for Picturehouse Cinemas

- 3rd Prize: Dinner for two at the Salt Yard, Goodge Street

For a full list of prizes, see the terms and conditions page

If you would like to get involved, by buying some tickets, or even better, helping to sell them, then please:

Email fundraising, stating how many individual tickets or books of 12 you would like posting to you

Or call 020 7222 1602

]]> http://www.cardinalhumecentre.org.uk/news/win-big-in-the-change-a-life-raffle/feed/ 0 http://www.cardinalhumecentre.org.uk/news/fancy-winning-afternoon-tea-for-4-at-the-goring-hotel/ http://www.cardinalhumecentre.org.uk/news/fancy-winning-afternoon-tea-for-4-at-the-goring-hotel/#comments Wed, 15 May 2013 10:06:51 +0000 trish http://www.cardinalhumecentre.org.uk/?p=3537 This June the Cardinal Hume Centre is asking you to Get Changed to be in with the chance of winning afternoon tea for four at The Goring Hotel – voted ‘best afternoon tea 2013′ by the Tea Guild!

Get Changed is just one of the many ways in which you can support the Centre’s Change a Life month this June. By making a dramatic change in appearance you can raise awareness of the work of the Centre and be in with the chance of winning this fantastic prize.

If you need some inspiration see the video of our staff makeover….

To showcase your transformation you can either make a 6 second vine film using your iPhone, iPod or iPad, or take a before and after photo. Then tweet your results  using the hashtag #getcanged or email it to Patricia Marron to be in with a chance of winning tea for four at the Goring Hotel.

We have partnered with Pantaloons in Pimlico, who are offering a discount on accessories and hire outfits when you mention Get Changed.

For further information on Get Changed or Change a Life month, contact Patricia Marron from the Fundraising Team.

In 2012 the Cardinal Hume Centre was delighted to be voted Sainsbury’s Pimlico Charity of the Year and have received wonderful support from the staff and customers. From baking to book collections, bag packing to Easter eggs, Sainsbury’s Pimlico have raised almost £2000 for the Centre.

An in-store bag packing event with Children from local schools and staff from the Centre saw customers donate over £800.

The store launched two second hand good collections for the Centre’s charity shop. The December ‘Bin your Books’ appeal saw customers donate over 150 books raising almost £300. The more recent collection of bric a brac and clothes are set to raise a further £300 when sold in the Centre’s charity shop on Horseferry Road.

In February staff baked and sold cakes and cookies to staff, raising another £300. At Easter 20 chocolate eggs were donated and gratefully received by the children in the family Centre.

In March Sainsbury’s Pimlico donated £500 towards running the Centre’s summer programme. This support will make a huge difference to local children’s summer holidays.

Ian Fairhurst, Fundraising Manager at the Centre, is delighted with the support from Sainsbury’s  ‘The partnership with Sainsbury’s Pimlico has not only raised vital funds for the Centre but helped build our presence in the local community. A big thank you to the staff and customers of the store for making the year such a success.’

“We got to create our own beats!”

Javier Davis is one of thirteen hostel residents who took part in a series of music production workshops in the Centre’s Hostel on Friday evenings. It was a great opportunity to learn something new.

As Javier says, “In some ways it’s easy to get lazy and not use your time productively. It was great to have the sessions on a Friday, especially for two whole hours. It meant it wasn’t like you just got into it, and it was over, it was a whole evening.”

Workshops are not simply about providing entertainment, as Brian Beaton, one of the Hostel coaches says:  “The workshops have allowed the young people to work together in a positive environment and have created an excitement, sense of achievement and a mutual respect amongst peers.”

Javier, and the rest if the group had the chance to write their own compositions, and voiced creative raps/poetry over the beats they have made. Brian is really proud of them: “They showed such a high level of creative writing and thinking which we may never of realised if it wasn’t for their engagement in the workshop!”

“I really enjoyed the opportunity and learnt so much”, says Javier. “I really hope that enough people sign up so we can start a 10 week course soon.”

Like lots of people I came to London thinking of all the opportunities. I want to be a journalist, and although I didn’t know exactly how I would make it happen, I wanted to be in London, where ‘it was all happening’.  It seems so naïve to think like that now.

I started off staying with a friend, but she was living with her boyfriend, so I couldn’t stay forever. I managed to get a temporary job in a coffee shop, but that was barely enough to live on, let alone cover rent. When my contract came to an end life got really difficult. The longer I was without work, the further things started to spiral out of control.

When you are alone in London, you are vulnerable. With no family or friends to turn to, I ended up involved with drugs, and selling myself to get by. Sometimes I had enough money to pay for a bed and breakfast room, but at other points I was sleeping at Kings Cross Station. I still try to figure out what went wrong. How did I get to the point where I didn’t care if I lived or died?

Thankfully, an outreach worker put me in touch with an organisation in Holborn, who provided me with a night shelter. I expected it to be a terrible and scary experience, but instead I got to spend time with some of the nicest and interesting people I’ve ever met. They all had their different stories, and by sharing them, I realised how ignorant I’ve been all this time. This experience opened my eyes on the issue of homelessness; that actually anyone can end up on the streets.

The organisation gave me clean clothes, and food to eat, but also treated me as if I was an ordinary person with ordinary problems. With the help of the place at Holborn I managed to get a room at the Cardinal Hume Centre. The staff were so nice and friendly and for the first time in months I started to feel safe. They talked about all the different workshops and activities and I started to feel hopeful, and looked forward to the chance to start again.

I guess, when you don’t have people around you to support you, it’s hard to carry the cross. I now feel more hopeful, as with the help and support that I get at the Centre, I know that this time things will be different. I hope that one day I’ll follow in the footsteps of my hero journalist Christopher Hitchens and stand-up against injustice. I hope that whoever out there is still struggling to get back on their two feet, will soon find caring people, like the ones I found at the Centre.

Kozeta Alku,42, has spent the last few years looking after her son. Although her husband is working, she is desperately looking for work now that her son is old enough, in order to help improve their financial situation. She is still looking for a job, but says without the support of the Centre she would have already given up.

“When I arrived at the Centre I was really nervous. Normally I am very shy of meeting new people. But Gareth and Phil [Gateway staff] were so smiley and welcoming. I started to feel hopeful that I would find help here.”

The Gateway made an appointment for Kozeta to meet the Employment Team:

“They are so nice. They listened to me, helped me with my CV and also told me about the computer classes at the Centre. It is so useful having everything in one place. I have also completed two voluntary placements at the Centre – one was helping the housing team with administration, and the other on reception.”

Having some voluntary excperience, not only means Kozeta has some up to date content on her CV but that she is starting to get a bit more confident. It also helped her to get a voluntary placement as a Teaching Assistant, which would be her dream job.

“I love it. I am so pasionate about working with children. I love helping them, and seeing their faces when they learn new things.”

Kozeta is still looking for paid work.

“I will do anything. I am practising my interview technique as I still freeze and just can’t get what I want to say out of my mouth. I worry that employers don’t want me because of my age, but I am very hard working. I want to make life better for my son.

The Cardinal Hume Centre keeps me going when I find it tough. If it wasn’t for the staff here I would have given up. I believe that God has picked all the best people and placed them at the Cardinal Hume Centre to help people out of poverty and difficult circumstances.”

Community fundraiser, Sandra Deeble, led lessons last week with groups in Year 7 and Year 8, who discussed what home meant to them and the importance of getting young people off the streets.  All of the students were so interested in the work at the Centre and we are hoping that some of them will come to visit after their exams.

Babjide Shittu then presented Sandra with a £500 cheque for the Centre, which was a complete surprise.

Earlier this year, St Thomas More donated Easter eggs for all of the children in our Family Centre, which were handed out after the Easter production of Snow White.

A big thank you to Mrs Henry who organised the visit, to teachers Ms Gormley and Mr Leigh Wood, and to Deputy Head, Ms Greer.

St Thomas More, we look forward to your visit soon!

Please contact us at fundraising@cardinalhumecentre.org.uk if you would like to visit the Centre and get first-hand experience of the work that we do.

Earlier this week, Sandra Deeble, our community fundraiser, was invited to an assembly at the school. Two pupils, Shina and Luis, read out the message below, before presenting Sandra with a collection of hampers.

‘Last term Year 6 did a lot of work about homelessness and the devastating effects that it can have on people’s lives.

‘We were lucky to be able to go and visit the Cardinal Hume Centre and see the amazing work that the people do there.  We helped to raise money just before Christmas by helping to pack shoppers’ bags in Sainsbury’s at Pimlico – people very kindly gave us money for the Centre in return for us packing their bags.

‘We wanted, as a school, to help the Centre, which was why we decided to collect an assortment of toiletries.  Our mums are always telling us how expensive everything is to buy – especially toothpaste and soap etc, so we hope that our small donation will help all of your young homeless people at the Cardinal Hume Centre.’

It’s a fantastic idea, which will help our  young residents feel clean and confident, ready for interviews or starting apprenticeships.

A big thank you goes to Mrs Anne Evans, everyone at Year 6, and in fact, the whole of St Joseph’s School for being kind, generous and bags of fun!

If your school might be interested in doing a similar collection for the Centre, please contact us at fundraising@cardinalhumecentre.org.uk

Before coming to the Centre, Omar had done incredibly well in his GCSE’s, getting 7 A’s and 2 B’s, but the area he was living in meant he found it difficult to take the next steps in his life.

“When I was at home, it wasn’t great. There are no opportunities, and I didn’t want to get any more involved with the police. I had done enough bad things that, when I was walking down the street, I was always looking over my shoulder. I realised that my life was going down the wrong path.”

Omar decided he needed to just get out. He had a friend who was living at the Cardinal Hume Centre, and so came straight to him:

“My mate had a room at the Centre; he let me stay on the floor for a few nights. I was homeless for a time. Sometimes I was staying with friends, or in other hostels. In the end I applied for a place at the Centre.”

Having a safe place to stay was the starting point that Omar needed, and he settled in straight away.

“I was so relieved. No more worrying about where I was going to stay. No more ‘where am I going to go’? It gave me a place to keep my head, to have focus. Nobody knew me, so it was the chance to give a new impression and to have a fresh start.”

Hostel life isn’t always easy. Living in a place where there are lots of young people who are all struggling, can create a difficult environment.

“It’s hard, as you can often have a lot of time on your hands. It’s so easy to end up sitting in your room doing nothing, and become lazy. I used to go for a run nearly every day – now I don’t. I wish the hostel staff could put on more activities, like weekly football. If we had somewhere nearby where we could play I would take people out myself.”

Despite these difficulties, Omar has only been at the Centre for two and a half months, but has already really impressed staff with his enthusiasm and determination to make something of himself. As his coach, Debra Francis says:

“I am so proud of Omar. The other day he came to me, and told me about yet another internship he was applying for. I just kept saying how proud I was of him. He is such a star.”

Omar has just applied for his dream internship at Barclays Bank. At the same time he is hoping for a scholarship with Tottenham after passing the football trials, but he’s not resting on his laurels:

“I have ambition with sport, but you have to be sensible. One injury and it could all be over. Football isn’t forever. I want to have plenty of plans lined up for my future”.

If Omar doesn’t get an apprenticeship or internship in finance, he has already applied to go to college in September to go on to do his A levels. Whatever happens next, Omar is determined to build a brighter future.

“I want to be successful. I did well in my GCSEs, so hopefully I will have lots of opportunities. I am lucky that my parents are supportive of me, and hopefully I can make them proud.”

Before coming to the Centre, Lucy had no job, and was sleeping on friends’ sofas. As time went on, she felt like she had outstayed her welcome, and eventually found a room at a homeless hostel near to the Centre.

“It was a horrible place to live, there was no support really. I’d build a relationship with a keyworker, and then after a few months they’d say ‘sorry I’m leaving for a new job’ and I’d be on my own for a while. At that time I felt really lonely and lost.”

Lucy heard about the Centre from one of the other residents at her hostel.

“Life was hard, I knew I needed help, so decided to be brave and come to the Centre. I was surprised, everyone was so kind. I felt like I could trust these people, and for the first time in years, I didn’t feel so alone.”

The Gateway referred Lucy to the Centre’s Jobs Team, who were amazed by her resolve and dedication. Despite what she was going through, Lucy had already enrolled at her local college to do a counselling course. As Richard Breedt, one of our Employment Officers says, “Her tenacity and drive really showed what she was capable of.  I was certain that she would make a success of herself”.

Lucy was determined to support herself financially, and with Richard’s help, she managed to get a cleaning job in the evening to fund her studies. As Lucy says, “Having work gave me security. I like earning and being independent”.

Her living conditions were still poor, but now that she had a job the Centre’s Housing Team could work with Lucy to help her to find a better place to live.

“It’s the only down-side of the Centre – I wished their hostel took in people older than 21! It would have been much easier if I had been able to live here instead of the other hostel. I was so relieved when they helped me to move out from that horrible place – I am now sharing a rented house, and I can’t tell you how much happier I am!”

With her new-found security, Lucy was ready to take on her dream of going to University, but sadly this wasn’t the end of the story. Lucy really struggled with the work.

“I was struggling with the coursework. English was never my strong point. I wanted someone to talk things through with, but there wasn’t anyone I could ask. But, the Centre had a great idea, and set me up with my mentor, Rachel. She helped me to become much more confident. Just having someone to listen really helped”.

Lucy is now in her second year at University and is doing really well. As part of her course, she has to do a work placement, and we were absolutely delighted when she contacted the Centre and asked if we had a student position in our hostel. She is now a real asset to the Housing Team, and it’s clear her chosen career is her vocation:

“I want to work with young people, to be a counsellor. I want to be there for people when times are hard for them. So, I am studying youth work, and plan to combine it with the counselling course I did at college. I want to help people, like the Centre helped me”.