Together has donated £250,000 to Centrepoint, in order to support hundreds of young people into safe and secure housing.
The donation will be directed to Centrepoint’s Independent Living Programme, which provides high quality, affordable housing for young people.
According to the Centrepoint’s latest research, across 2021 and 2022 around 129,000 16 to 24-year-olds were homeless or at risk of homelessness.
Worryingly, just 68% of the young people who reached out for support were assessed by their local authority in England.
Together’s donation will fund the complete build of two properties within the programme, which is aiming to deliver 300 modular homes for young people aged 18 to 25 across Manchester and London.
The modular homes are provided to young people who are in work or on an apprenticeship, and are provided with household essentials.
In line with Together’s Sustainability Strategy, each property will be in use for approximately 60 years.
Gerald Grimes, CEO designate at Together, said: “As a business our culture has always been to support young people starting out in their careers through graduate or apprenticeship schemes – some of the most senior people in our team started out their careers here as apprentices.
“That ethos of giving young people a great start in life is continued with our partnership with Centrepoint.
“The Independent Living programme is a great way of enabling young people to make their own way in life with a little bit of help and we’re really optimistic about the impact our £250,000 donation will make both in the short and long term.”
Through this partnership, Together will also launch its Thrive Together campaign which will take a deeper dive into the ambitions and aspirations of the young people who are helped through Centrepoint’s work.
Julie Milnes, director of fundraising at Centrepoint, added: “Our Independent Living programme is Centrepoint’s most ambitious project to date.
“Providing innovative, high quality and affordable housing alongside Centrepoint’s support provision means that young people can concentrate on what’s most important: their futures. This work comes down to one singular mission – to help young people move on to independence.”
She concluded: “We are delighted to be partnering with Together and their incredible donation will help us to fund part of our new Independent Living project in Manchester.
“We cannot deliver Independent Living without the support of amazing partners like Together and we look forward to working closely with them to reach our goal of giving all homeless young people a future and ultimately ending youth homelessness by 2037.”
