The YMCA already helps hundreds of people of all ages off the county streets each year and into safe accommodation. But its Fun 4 Young People is designed to stop people ending up on the streets in the first place.
So impressed has the Big Lottery organisation been with the charity’s work in Bedfordshire that is has awarded the project £299,117 over three years.
YMCA Bedfordshire chief executive Paul Hunt said: “Heading towards living on the streets often begins in unhappy homes. By mitigating several of the risk factors associated with family breakdown and increasing protective factors in the lives of children and young people, we are reducing the potential for them to become displaced from their families and eventually homeless.”
- Pictured: Paul Hunt (left) and Bedfordshire YMCA’s marketing and fundraising officer Paul Kellett.
Around 85% of YMCA residents aged 16-25 have been homeless as a result of family breakdown.
“Our F4YP programme looks to tackle these risk factors head on by helping support marginalised, disadvantaged 5 – 16-year-old children , young people and their peers through after school and holiday clubs,” said Mr Hunt.
“This funding could save millions of pounds in the costs of social and health care which arise when people become homeless and their lives spiral downwards.”
