£50K grant to youth centre in Hackney - LandAid - Supporting a variety of homelessness projects in the UK

Feb

2010

£50K grant to youth centre in Hackney

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L-R Sarah Smyth, Mike Slade, Delan Edward,
Sanjay Sing and Andrew Purvis CEO of Fairbridge.

Representatives of LandAid yesterday attended the opening of a new activity and learning centre for young people in North London, run by leading national youth charity Fairbridge and made possible by a lead gift of £50,000 from LandAid.

The specially designed centre offers better facilities than the previous premises and will provide increased capacity for support and room for a challenging range of activities for over 200 disengaged young people aged 13-25 each year – giving them the opportunity to turn their lives around.

Almost 90% of the young people who Fairbridge work with face three or more significant challenges such as homelessness, a lack of qualifications, or a history of offending in addition to not being in education, employment or training. In 2008-09 64% of those in Hackney have achieved a positive outcome. With the new centre, facilities and support in place Fairbridge will be able to help even more young people to do the same.

Mike Slade, LandAid President and Chief Executive of Helical Bar, said: “In these tough times for the property industry it’s easy to forget the huge challenges that many young people face on a daily basis. LandAid, as the property industry charity, is delighted to be supporting Fairbridge in giving more young people in North London access to the facilities and help they need to build a positive future.”

Andrew Purvis, Chief Executive, Fairbridge, said: “The last twelve months have been a hugely turbulent period for our economy and in such dramatic times it is often all too easy to overlook the huge challenges facing the most vulnerable young people in our communities. In these difficult times the support Fairbridge offers is in greater demand than ever and the generous donations of trusts like LandAid, businesses and individual supporters have been vital in making this new, larger centre for Hackney a reality. I know these new facilities will enable the team here to help more vulnerable young people from North London which can only be a good thing.”