Hub for the Homeless at The Upper Room

The environment

The Upper Room has an environmental policy. We utilise surplus food to feed people and avoid purchasing food. We recycle donations of clothing and bedding.

The local economy

UR4Driving and UR4Jobs both improve the employability of our beneficiaries. Many of the people who we help have multiple barriers to employment so for each one we help into work this is a major achievement. Our support not only makes people more employable but also less likely to be reliant on benefits. This is to everyone's advantage! By reducing re-offending there will be considerable cost-savings to the criminal justice system. A recent evaluation of UR4Driving showed that less than 10% had re-offended, when compared with a national recidivism rate of 60% within two years. As far as we know, none of the participants in 2019 have re-offended to date.

Volunteering, jobs & education

The Upper Room creates many volunteering opportunities across all three of our projects. UR4Meals has teams of 6 volunteers who help every evening to serve the evening meal, wash up, welcome guests and chat to them. UR4Jobs welcomes volunteers to help with our Jobs Club two days a week. We have a team of multi-lingual volunteers who are vital in helping with translating important documents and interpreting for beneficiaries when there is a language barrier. All the UR4Driving students (60-100 per annum) are required to commit to 80 hours of voluntary work at The Upper Room or at other local voluntary sector organisations. This enables them to develop valuable life/work skills. Many of them enjoy it so much that they carry on afterwards. A driving licence dramatically improves their employment prospects as well as opening up other opportunities e.g. as self-employed tradesperson.

Arts, culture & heritage

None.

Activity, health and leisure

Our projects help people's mental health and physical wellbeing.