YMCA Exeter win Skipton’s Community Giving Grant! In 2019, Skipton Building Society launched an annual Community Giving grant, where they invite mortgage brokers and employees of intermediary firms to nominate a housing or homelessness cause, to receive a £1,000 donation.
The Mortgage Quarter is over the moon to announce that, after nominating YMCA Exeter for Skipton’s annual Building Society’s Community Giving Grant, they have won £1,000 for their incredible charitable services.
YMCA Exeter win Skipton’s Community Giving Grant. (Pictured above Zoe Ballagher from The Mortgage Quarter and Gareth Sorsby, Joint YMCA CEO).
YMCA Exeter
YMCA Exeter is one of the oldest YMCAs in the world. They offer services, which include supported accommodation, mental health and wellbeing, Children’s and Youth services, offender rehabilitation, community development, and internship placements.
A few weeks ago we popped in for a tour of YMCA Exeter and to chat with Gareth and Hilary to explain a little bit more about how the donation will be used.
In what ways do you support housing and homelessness?
“We provide supported accommodation all over Exeter for young people who have experienced or been at risk of, homelessness. We have over 100 homeless young people a year coming to stay in our supported accommodation. All our supported accommodation is designed to help them transition from homelessness into independent living, as well as to prevent them from entering the cycle of homelessness again.
Each stage offers a varying degree of one-to-one and peer support and gives young people, between the ages of 16-29, the opportunity to make a fresh start. There isn’t really a set time that young people can live at the YMCA. Some stay with us for one year, others for several years as they move through our stages of accommodation before finding a permanent home of their own.”
How will the £1,000 donation be used to provide long-term benefits, not just short-term fixes?
“We are transforming an abandoned warehouse in Exeter City Centre into 26 truly affordable studio apartments, specifically for 26 young people moving on from supported housing projects. At ‘Sidwell Studios’, young people will receive a long-term, affordable and safe home, as well as wellbeing and employment support.
By creating this additional housing in Exeter for 26 previously homeless young people, we will also free up another 26 bed spaces in other housing projects, meaning more space is available for those at more immediate risk of homelessness.”