About the Organisation
The Amber Foundation provides a temporary home to young homeless people across 4 centres in Kent, Surrey, Wiltshire and Devon. Our support goes beyond just accommodation, young people take part in our programme of support with the aim of helping them move on from Amber into employment and sustainable accommodation.
What makes Amber special is our tailored approach that is hands-on and focusses on each young person’s strengths. Every young person that comes to Amber has their own individual plan but our programme of support and theory of change is based around young people focussing on 4 key areas of their lives: employability, independent living, health, mental-health and wellbeing, and personal development.
Young people who have experienced childhood trauma, or escaped domestic violence, too often become homeless. Sleeping on sofas or in hostels, they struggle to find work with devastating effect on their self-confidence and mental health. It’s a vicious spiral that’s hard to break. That’s where Amber comes in. We provide a temporary home and a programme of support that helps young people transform their lives for good. 72% move on from Amber into independent housing, with a job or back into education.
Request details
The Amber Foundation currently occupy a 32 unit supported accommodation unit for young homeless people in Dorking, Surrey, providing 24/7 shelter, support and guidance. This consists of individual bedrooms along with shared spaces in a Jacobean style mansion house with Grade II listed status.
During a recent survey conducted by English Heritage, the chimneys were noted as leaning onto the outside of the building, affecting the surrounding brick work and causing a danger to the space underneath. Advice provided recommended they may need pinning to the roof or taking down and rebuilding.
The Amber Foundation also require a survey on the roof of the converted stable block (at the same site), that is currently leaking in various places and have been advised they need to know the weight of the roof to determine what roof covering can be put in place.
Amber Foundation would welcome pro bono support from a structural engineer to review the advice from English Heritage, to conduct a full survey on the chimney area and the roof on the stable blocks, and to advise further on the options and best course of action available to them.
Timeline
ASAP – Urgent due to potential risk to residents