CRASH donate our fundraising to KAIROS

CRASH and Guildmore choose to designate this money to Kairos Community Trust’s project in Surrey Quays, south east London.

Kairos Community has an excellent record of providing services to extremely needy and vulnerable homeless people. They have achieved excellent results in helping people to stay drug and alcohol free and to find employment, independent living and reconnection with families. Their Chief Executive Mossie Lyons was presented with the Tony Dennison Award by CRASH in 2012, for ‘outstanding service to homeless people’. The award was established in memory of Tony who founded CRASH in 1996.

Family owned business Guildmore raised over £2,000 at their Summer Ball, which they have generously donated to industry charity CRASH.

Wanting to ensure they made a real, lasting impact on the lives of homeless people, CRASH and Guildmore choose to designate this money to Kairos Community Trust’s project in Surrey Quays, south east London.

CRASH has been working with Kairos Community Trust for many years supporting a number of their development projects. This current project in South East London will see the creation of an extension to provide two additional bedrooms bringing the total bed spaces to 10.

CRASH will continue to add value to the cash grants awarded to Kairos by providing pro-‐bono Architectural services from Patron company Areen Design and Quantity Surveying from Balfour Beatty and Aecom and sourcing building materials free of charge materials.

Showing that they genuinely care about creating communities that function according to every age and need, Guildmore employees worked hard on a wide range of fund-‐raising initiatives (including cake sales and a golf day), as well as The Summer Ball to raise. They were keen that the money they raised was used in the most effective way possible.

“We believe that equality and diversity are essential to our organisation. Housing is not just about putting a roof over people’s heads. We get involved in community engagement through jobs and training in businesses, schools, leisure and green space in every health, construction and housing project.

“Investing in people and communities is our present and our future. We consistently deliver good outcomes and recognise the need for economic regeneration schemes and employment opportunities. The results transform communities and lead to happy purposeful lives.”

CRASH is a unique, practical charity addressing the issues of homelessness by harnessing the skills, products and goodwill of the construction and property industry. We act as the conduit between the industry and homelessness agencies to help improve emergency night shelters, hostels, day centres and move-‐on accommodation.

CRASH does this in three ways:

Providing pro-‐bono professional expertise
Sourcing building materials free of charge
Awarding cash grants

CRASH offers the opportunity for organisations to be instrumental in delivering improved accommodation to homeless people. And not just through donating money. It allows individuals to use their skills, capabilities and products to provide a service, which, in many cases, money can’t buy.

This collaborative approach has been recognised by the Prime Minister with a Big Society Award. Prime Minister David Cameron said: “The innovative approach CRASH takes harnesses the world-‐class skills and products of our construction industry to tackle the issue of homelessness. This Big Society Award recognises the remarkable achievements of everyone involved.”

Kairos Community Trust – A Resident’s Story

Former soldier David is currently staying in Kairos Community Trust’s move on accommodation in South East London. Here is his story: I came to Kairos a broken man addicted to alcohol, drugs and complete chaos in my life. After leaving the Army, I bounced from job to job and one criminal conviction after another due to my drinking. After ten years I wanted to give up this chaotic life and surrender to my problems. In stepped Veterans’ Aid who sent me to Kairos. After nine months of their therapeutic, 12-‐step programme and aftercare I am clean and sober. I have a life beyond my wildest dreams. With their help and support I am about to embark on a college course and am starting to put my life back together. What I owe Kairos cannot be covered in a few sentences or with words. I owe them my life.

The relationship between CRASH and Kairos Community Trust

“I remember exactly when it was completed 17 March 2007.” For Mossie Lyons, director of the Kairos Community Trust, the date is hugely significant -‐ it was when the hall at Linden Grove in Nunhead, south London, was transformed with help from CRASH.

Kairos helps people who become homeless through addiction. It has a network of 28 supported move-‐on houses, mostly in south London. The relationship between Kairos and CRASH goes back 13 years, starting with work on its Linden Grove building.

Mossie explains: “The phone number for CRASH was included in the development notes, so I decided to get in touch,” said Mossie. “Then the process kicked in.” CRASH was impressed by the quality of Kairos’ work and concerned about the lack of provision in this part of London. It decided that to work with Kairos effectively it would need to invest long term. CRASH’s help has since led to cash grants of over

£54,000 spread over six projects since 2008. The work has involved everything from boiler installations, painting projects, kitchen fit-‐outs and building extensions. Much of this was only possible with the materials donated by the likes of Baxi, Sir Robert McAlpine, Bauder, and Faber Maunsell.

But it’s not just the fundraising and the materials supplied by CRASH that Mossie values: “[CRASH} also gives professional advice. For example, Guildersfield Road is a listed building. We were able to get guidance on what would be appropriate development.” Consultant Aecom provided invaluable advice on this particular project.

The architect practice Areen Design helped out on another recent Kairos project in Eugenia Road, in London’s Surrey Quays. Here they created a community dining room and are working on plans for two further bedrooms.

Residents in Kairos accommodation find themselves homeless for a wide range of reasons, and there is no typical homeless person. “My mental health issues started,

but the alcohol masked it all. That’s how I ended up on the streets, after a nervous breakdown,” says Dominic O’Gorman, support worker at Kairos. “I was a seven stone tramp full of beard, drinking on the streets of Euston. She [the street outreach worker] came and sat next to me. She explained who she was and just talked to me a little bit. After a few visits she asked me ‘do you want to get clean?'”

Dominic received support from Kairos as he found his feet. When he needed a work placement scheme to fulfill the requirements of a social care course, Kairos was more than happy to let Dominic volunteer at the home.

Turning around the fortunes of people like Dominic is the challenge facing charities such as Kairos, and for Mossie the work to improve its accommodation is vital to that aim. And he is keen to stress the important role the work of other people played to make it all happen: “We would not have done it without CRASH.”

A process of due diligence

Kairos, like all charities CRASH works with, went through a lengthy assessment process. “We don’t just assess the buildings, we have a good look at the services that are provided by that charity to people,” says CRASH communications manager Emma Brophy. “There’s a lot of due diligence that goes on before we even agree to help.”

And this careful approach is key to CRASH’s success: as a charity it aims to work on long-‐term projects so that the outcomes really make a lasting difference. This way of working is not just more efficient, it is also immensely rewarding for all those involved.

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