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Foundations for Life officially launched by Minister |
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Housing Minister Yvette Cooper and Land Securities' Francis Salway at the launch of Foundations for Life. They are flanked by Julian Smyth, CEO of LandAid, and Anthony Lawton, CEO of Centrepoint
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LandAid's ground-breaking new partnership with youth homelessness charity Centrepoint was launched on March 7 by the Housing Minister Yvette Cooper at a ceremony held at the offices of the Grosvenor Group. The event was hosted by the Chief Executive of Centrepoint, Anthony Lawton, and his counterpart at LandAid, Julian Smyth, with Francis Salway, Chief Executive of Land Securities, speaking on behalf of the property industry supporters of the project.
Over eighty of the "great and good" of the property sector, along with charity and media representatives, heard Mrs Cooper praise the partnership between, as she put it, "the Third Sector and the Private Sector" which Foundations for Life represents.
The Minister also used the launch as an opportunity to announce an additional complementary scheme involving Centrepoint and the YMCA to further tackle the problem of youth homelessness.
Francis Salway affirmed his belief that support for such initiatives was an excellent way for the property industry to respond to the problem of youth homelessness and looked forward to participating in terms of financial support, resources, expertise and volunteering. Land Securities has pledged a minimum of £250,000 for the partnership.
Julian Smyth was able to announce that LandAid intended to put some £4m into the partnership over four years and that pre-launch pledges and donations had already raised £1m of this total.
Anthony Lawton stressed how important it is to be able to equip young homeless people with the skills and opportunities they need if they are ever to break out the cycle of dependence which traps so many. He regarded Foundations for Life as a wonderful opportunity to create a nationwide response to this need and praised the property industry for taking on the challenge.
The full text of the Minister's speech can be found at http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1508531 and further details of the Foundations for Life scheme can be found on the menu bar above.
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