Historically, each year at Christmas, we would send out gifts, hampers and cards to our clients and friends to celebrate the season. For several years now we have chosen Centrepoint to pass this gift on to a more meaningful place. Our feedback from our clients and friends is always favourable, so we are excited to be donating to Centrepoint again this year.
Centrepoint is the UK’s leading youth homelessness charity, which means that, alongside their partners, they support over 16,000 young people every year and are campaigning to end youth homelessness by 2037.
On the Centrepoint website there is a whole host of seasonal gifts you can choose from to show a homeless young person that someone is thinking about them this Christmas. There’s things like ‘A Warm Bed and Safety’ which ensures a bed at Centrepoint, this isn’t just a way to bring a young person in from the cold this Christmas, it’s also a physical and mental break from sofa surfing, the streets, and a safe space to rest, without fear and uncertainty. A ‘Home-cooked Christmas Dinner’ is no ordinary Christmas dinner, as it’s also filled with safety and warmth, the chance to sit around a table, share stories and forget about the past for an evening.
The National picture for homelessness for the year 2022-2023 has some very surprising stats, here’s just a few, 135,800 16-24 year olds were homeless or at risk of homelessness in the UK during this period. 1 in 52 young people are homeless or at risk of homelessness in the UK and 67% of cases of homelessness in England were not successfully prevented or dealt with throughout this year.
Did you know you can ‘Sponsor a Young Person’s Stay at Centrepoint for a Year’ as one of the gifts this year. Sponsoring a room at Centrepoint, opens the door to a new future for a vulnerable young person, a future free from homelessness. This option is also gifting them the vital support they may not have had before, for an entire year, providing a young person with the complete package of a room of their own, counselling and health support and the one-to-one practical advice of a Key Worker.
We thought that the ‘Gift of Christmas’, which consists of a warm meal and the company of people who empathise with the situation can be an enormously meaningful gift to give a young person this Christmas. The meal is combined with a good night’s sleep and a few items of fresh clothing, this gift can help a young person feel re-energised and ready to reflect on their next steps.
There’s so many more gifts, we have spoken about just a few, have a look on their website using this link: https://centrepoint.org.uk/virtual-gifts
We will chose some of our favourite gifts and donate to Centrepoint this year. From all at The OPRA Group, we would like to wish all of our clients and friends a warm and happy Christmas, surrounded by the people you care about.
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