The Cumberland’s AGM raises £15,000 for West Cumbria homeless charity
A West Cumbrian homeless charity is £15,000 better off thanks to The Cumberland.
Calderwood House in Egremont will use the windfall to provide vital outreach work for its residents after the building society donated the money from its Annual General Meeting.
For every customer vote, £2 was pledged to Calderwood House. 5898 customers voted this year, raising just under £12,000, which The Cumberland topped up, bringing the total donation to £15,000.
That money, the charity says, will be used to cover the cost of an outreach service, after it lost its local authority-funding for the post last year.
It follows a visit by Stuart Miller, The Cumberland's Chief Executive, to meet staff, volunteers and residents at Calderwood House earlier this month [July].
Run by Time to Change West Cumbria, it is a 10-bedroom emergency hostel, housed in a converted police station, for people aged 25 and over, prioritising military veterans and those with a local connection to the former Copeland area.
Manager Rebecca Irving said the funding will make a significant difference.
"It's going to be invaluable," she said. "We did have a permanent outreach worker that was funded by the local authority and unfortunately we lost that funding last year. So that post went, and we lost our outreach worker.
"The Cumberland money is going to fund the outreach work that had been done in the past. Currently, we're just doing the bare bones of it when people move on because we just don't have the money to pay staff to do outreach, but this money will help get residents settled in their properties.
"It will help people sustain a tenancy to avoid the revolving door syndrome of what used to happen before we had outreach – people would get a tenancy, be left on their own, not know how to run a house and end up back here.”
The Cumberland has previously supported Calderwood House through initiatives like its Kinder Kitchen project, while Rebecca also officially cut the ribbon on the building society's refurbished Egremont branch last year.
Cumberland CEO, Stuart Miller said: “When I visited Calderwood House, I was deeply impressed with the help they give to the people in our community who need it the most. That former residents have returned to become volunteers and even staff members says everything about the impact of their work.
“So I am very proud that, thanks to our members, we can donate £15,000 towards their outreach work, giving people the practical support they need as they move into their own homes and helping them sustain their tenancies.
"It's a wonderful example of how we can support organisations that make such a lasting difference in our communities.”