Berkeley Foundation invests £300000 in five expert youth homelessness charities

Berkeley Foundation invests £300000 in five expert youth homelessness charities

The Berkeley Foundation, the grant-making foundation set up by Berkeley Group, has partnered with five youth homelessness charities working across the UK. Each organisation has been given a grant of £60,000 over two years, to aid the organisations’ long-term financial sustainability and help build organisational resilience.

The five charities selected for a grant in 2024/25 are Settle, Esteem, The Foyer Federation, Youth Concern and CARAS. All of these organisations work to support young people who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

Last year, just under 136,000 young people aged 16 - 25 approached their council as homeless, with many young people experiencing homelessness remaining hidden. The Foundation’s new partners are directly addressing the root causes of homelessness, provide vital services to young homeless people who face additional challenges and discrimination and offer opportunities for young people to progress into work, education or training.

Three of the organisations, Youth Concern, CARAS and Esteem take a strongly localised approach to delivering support, building on local networks to ensure as many at-risk individuals are supported as possible and to signpost follow-on services as needed. The Foyer Federation and Settle have a broader reach providing online and in-person assistance to at-risk individuals across London and beyond.

These organisations are five of up to 25 organisations the Berkeley Foundation will be supporting between 2021 and 2024. The Foundation’s Resilience Fund was launched specifically to provide support for small and medium sized charities to build their resilience. The £900,000 of grants made over this period will be complemented by a learning programme to encourage peer support, and wherever possible, volunteer support from Berkeley Group staff.

Jamie Charnock, Head of Development and Impact at CARAS - Community Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers, comments:

“We’re delighted to partner with the Berkeley Foundation through their Resilience Fund. The intersection of policy changes and the cost-of-living crisis has created unparalleled challenges for the young people we work with, and support from the Resilience Fund will provide us with the unique opportunity to focus on diversifying our income streams and re-strategise at this pivotal moment. As a result, we’ll be able to run a more agile and adaptable service capable of delivering transformative outcomes for young people across south London.”

Sally Dickinson, Head of the Berkeley Foundation says:

“Our Resilience Fund provides vital funding into smaller organisations’ own resilience, helping to make them stronger and improve their ability to deal with future challenges. This is the third year, and the need is just as urgent as when we launched the Fund.

Our five new partners are all delivering important work in their communities, working with young people who are facing or experiencing homelessness. Our funding will contribute to their survival in the difficult current climate and ensure they are around to continue improving life for young people in years to come.

We have seen great results from the first two cohorts of Resilience Fund partners. It is exciting to see how our new partners will flourish over the next two years.”