SHOC wins grants from the Big Lottery Fund and Porticus UK

These two major grants will enable over 100 homeless and vulnerable people in Slough to improve their education, increase their self-esteem, take on volunteering and work placement roles, get jobs and move closer to breaking the cycle of dependency.

The grants will fully fund the Springboard Plus project in 2013 and partly fund the project in the years 2014 – 2016. The project will be delivered at Serena Hall’s Springboard Learning Centre which was established in 2007 with the help of a previous Big Lottery Fund grant.

Ray Waite, SHOC’s Chairman of Trustees, said: “This grant will enable us to build on the success of the Springboard project, which has helped 118 clients to secure employment over the last five years”.

Mandy McGuire, SHOC’s Project Manager, said: “This new project is just what our clients need and have asked for. Not only do they want to develop their skills in IT, numeracy and literacy, but they want to get experience of the work place by volunteering and doing work placements. Our clients are among the most difficult in society to place in work. SHOC is best placed to meet this challenge, building on many years of experience in helping chaotic lives become productive lives”.

In addition to the training staff in the Springboard Learning Centre, SHOC will be recruiting a part-time Work Placement Officer whose role will be to identify opportunities for volunteering, work placements and jobs in local organisations and to help clients to be ready to take up these opportunities.

The Springboard project will cost £422,898 over four years. £292,898 has been secured from the Big Lottery Fund and £25,000 from Porticus UK, but SHOC needs to find the remaining £105,000 from other grants and donations.

The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.

Porticus UK is a Christian charity supporting the poor and the marginalised.