This December, Truefitt & Hill will be donating 10% of all online sales to Centrepoint. Read on to learn more about the incredible work your purchases will be supporting.
Centrepoint’s strategy, ‘Change the Story: Ending Youth Homelessness All Together’ sets out to end youth homelessness by 2037, a little under two decades from now. But they can’t do this alone, and that is why Truefitt & Hill are supporting the Centrepoint charity this Christmas, by working all together, to end youth homelessness altogether.
From housing and health to learning and engagement, the Centrepoint charity has been listening to and helping vulnerable young people since it was formed. Whether it be providing them with accommodation, health support, life skills to get them back into education, training and employment or access to its ‘safe space’ blog, Centrepoint aims for a reachable future that young people can believe in.
Centrepoint has been at the heart of the Royal Family for decades. Diana, Princess of Wales, was a vocal and passionate patron of the organization. Since 2005, HRH William, Prince of Wales, has been an equally ardent advocate. He would visit Centrepoint hostels as a child, and today returns in both a public and private capacity.
In the decades since Centrepoint set up its first shelter pre-Christmas 1969 in a church in London’s Soho, it has been a beacon of hope for those youngsters most exposed within our communities.
The charity’s name came as a direct response to the then vacant Centre Point building, which was seen as an ‘affront to the homeless’ for being left empty for financial gain.
In 1986, a city broker, Richard Lester, on being asked for money for a cup of coffee by a homeless man, Martin Shaw, gave him £5,000. Shaw used this money to start Centrepoint’s first dedicated hostel with over 100 beds.
This Christmas, amid the jollity of our own lives, we must think of others – particularly vulnerable young people – who like the rest of the nation, are facing the cost-of-living crisis but doing so with empty stomachs, in poor health or homeless. Centrepoint is asking for donations that would, for just £10, give a young person emergency food support or, for £20, give a young person the counselling they desperately need.
By choosing Centrepoint as Truefitt & Hill’s charitable beneficiary for Christmas 2022, we are – with the help of our valued patrons – championing change, advocating action and working to eradicate youth homelessness in the near future.