Your Votes Are In!
2019 Recipients of the Livery Fund
Each year, we encourage all Clothworkers to donate, within their means, to the Livery Fund (a sub-fund of The Clothworkers' Foundation). The Company not only matches all donations, but also allows you, as a donor, to decide where the grants are allocated by nominating and then voting for shortlisted charities—making the Livery Fund an effective and rewarding way to directly support causes important to you.
The votes are in for 2019. This year, grants of £32,000 each will be awarded to Pathway, Revitalise and Switchback.
Pathway
Pathway is a homeless healthcare charity. It works with the NHS to create hospital teams to support homeless patients. Each team includes a specialist GP, nurses, allied health professionals, housing experts and in some hospitals, Pathway Care Navigators (people who were once homeless who are trained to support homeless patients).
Pathway teams provide patients with: housing and benefits advice; links to community services; support and collaboration with other clinicians (e.g. advice on drug interactions); complex care planning and discharge liaison; referral for addictions support; help with GP registration; clothes, shoes and other basics; and support to reconnect with loved ones.
To date Pathway has supported 11 hospitals to create homeless healthcare teams, helping over 3500 patients every year. Many of the people they support have complex combinations of physical illness, mental illness and substance misuse problems, and histories of trauma and abuse. The charity also carries out health and homelessness research and collaborates with other health and homelessness organisations in this arena.
Livery Fund grant: Professional have gained knowledge through academia and study. But homeless people have gained insights from their experiences on the streets and their journey to recovery. Over the last five years, Pathways has developed a ground-breaking approach to supporting homeless ‘Experts by Experience’ to improve the quality of health services for homeless people. A grant from the Livery Fund be used to the initiative to another level and would be used to support and train homeless people to teach professionals about homelessness, give a voice to the most excluded and speak about homelessness. Training formerly homeless people as ‘Experts by Experience’ ensures that they can speak on an equal footing with medical professionals, making sure that voices from the streets are heard. Past ‘Experts by Experience’ trainees have gone on to paid roles in homeless hostels, hospitals, mental health services, and commercial services. Beyond employment, they have been appointed to advisory boards and have spoken to national television about their experiences. Click here for more details: http://www.pathway.org.uk/
Revitalise
Holidays matter to everyone. Many people care for a disabled loved one and having no break can put family relationships and wellbeing under and immense amount of strain, with some reaching breaking point.
Revitalise is a national charity that has been providing short breaks and holidays for disabled people and carers for more than 50 years. It welcomes those who need 24 hour on-call nurse-led care to have a holiday, giving much-needed reassurance to disabled people and offering their carers peace of mind.
The charity provides around 4,000 breaks a years at its 3 fully-accessible UK centres in Essex, Southampton and Southport. It is able to cater for more than 150 debilitating conditions and also offers specialised Alzheimer’s weeks.
Breaks are tailored to every guest, with personalised care plans put in place for each of them. The Revitalise service is vital in offering disabled people and carers a lifeline away from the daily pressures of giving and receiving care.
Livery Fund grant: A grant from the Livery Fund would be used towards the Breaking Point Project to provide up to 65 week-long breaks for disabled people and their carers who are in financial hardship over a 12 month period. Click here for more on Revitalise: http://revitalise.org.uk/
Switchback
Switchback aims to change the way offenders think about, and participate in, society. It does this by identifying male prisoners aged 18-30 who have express a wish to life differently on release. Using catering as the vehicle for participation in, and reengagement with, society, the Switchback approach involves a three stage process:
- An eligible prisoner chooses to take part. During his last three months in prison, he meets regularly with his Switchback Mentor and starts to plan for a stable future. The same Switchback Mentor meets him on the day of release.
- He starts at a Switchback partner training cafe as soon as he is released; learning in a real work environment, and supported by his mentor to make the right choices, be reliable, get the help he needs and practice trying new things.
- Switchback works closely with a range of employers, arranging mock interviews, visits and work placements. The ex-prisoner continues to build stability across all areas of his life so that employment is rewarding and sustained.
Livery Fund grant: Switchback is currently recruiting two new roles, a Salesforces Administrator and a Communications Co-ordinator, both of which will contribute to increasing Switchback’s impact through policy and training work. A grant from the Livery Fund will almost wholly fund both posts, as well as the case management database both posts will be dependent on. Click here for more on Switchback: https://www.switchback.org.uk/
Make a Donation
Inspired? Making a donation to the Livery Fund is easy—all members of the Freedom and Livery are encouraged to do so. Visit our '
Charity' webpage to find out more about setting up a standing order for annual or even monthly payments. You can also contact
Emma Temple at Clothworkers' Hall if you have questions.