Hope Centre reflects on ‘year of change’ in 2023 ahead of upcoming 50th anniversary year

The Hope Centre has reflected on 2023, in what has been described as the organisation’s “year of change”, ahead of their upcoming 50th anniversary year.

The past twelve months have been no exception to the Hope Centre’s important work tackling hardship and helping people experiencing disadvantage – namely homelessness, addiction and mental health problems.

Louise Danielczuk, the head of development for the charity, described 2023 as “a real year of change” after Alex Copeland joined them in the previous June as the new chief executive.

“The end of 2022 was us reviewing our service and analysing what the community needed,” she said. “2023 has been the delivery of those objectives and what we are best placed to do to support the community.”

When asked what the Hope Centre team’s proudest achievements of the year are, Louise mentioned the continuation of the warm space and community cafe since it opened at the end of 2022.

Not only do members of the community volunteer there, but service users too – which helps them develop their employability skills and experience.

Louise added: “We also continued the hand up service supporting the homeless community, which has been massively needed this year.

“In the last quarter of 2023, the numbers are the highest we’ve ever seen – certainly in the six years I’ve been here.”

When the cold weather hit during the latter part of the year, the Hope team extended their six-day-a-week service to seven. This included SWEP, their emergency accommodation service in collaboration with West Northamptonshire Council.

“This was a positive step forward,” said Louise. “We’ve built relationships with other agencies and voluntary sector organisations to make sure people are supported. One of the real positives of this year is the community came together to make sure there aren’t any gaps.”

Louise is proud of Hope’s community outreach – which has gone from being focused on Northampton town centre to addressing the “huge need” out in the wider community.

This has included more work on the prevention of homelessness and making the money of those living in hardship go further, such as their 10 sites offering 13 different food larders.

Support is also offered to those in debt or needing financial support, as well as advice given on how to properly utilise the items they receive from food larders.

It was in October when the Hope Centre collaborated with a pumpkin farm to donate the leftover produce to those in need. They were then shown how to use the pumpkins in healthy meals and snacks, such as curry and scones.

Louise described the “ludicrous” number of individuals using the Hope Centre’s services, which spans across homeless people on the street and others in need out in the community.

Across the whole of the Food Aid West Northants Network, 10,751 food parcels were distributed in October alone – and an estimated 11,400 people benefitted from them.

One consistency across many who have come to the Hope Centre this year is that the hardship they face has come as a surprise.

Louise said: “It’s people who were in work two years ago, with a family life, putting up their Christmas tree and having Christmas dinner with their families. Now they haven’t got anything, are living on the street and accessing our services.

“One man could never have imagined being on the street, let alone at Christmas. Just having somewhere he can have a shower, get clean clothes and eat food is huge for him and means he can still function and have a ‘normal’ life.

“We’re there to support and move him forward. So many of them want to get back into work, live in a house and return to a normal life.

“From the feedback we’re getting, without Hope and its services they wouldn’t know where to go and how to start that life again.”

With those in need having been through traumatic experiences that have a “huge impact on mental health”, Louise stressed the importance of somebody being there for them and reassuring them that everything will be okay.

“The thing we get feedback on is that nobody realises the breadth of stuff we do,” the development manager continued.

“We’re very well known for the work we do for the homeless community, but it’s the wider work people are beginning to realise – the work we do once people are housed and move on, the training and development, the debt management.

“They’re beginning to realise the work we do to prevent people falling into homelessness with food larders and training. We’re not just an emergency service, we offer prevention and support.”

Though the Hope Centre has achieved so much this year, it has been “incredibly difficult financially” with the “huge increase” in the number of people needing to access the services.

“Our costs are increasing for food, to heat our facilities and run vehicles,” said Louise. “We get an awful lot of support and are ridiculously lucky, but people haven’t got the spare cash to donate anymore.

“It’s a triple whammy – our costs have gone up, the number of service users have gone up and donations have decreased.”

Having said that, Louise reinforced how lucky they are to receive support and they hope to see that continue into the 50th anniversary year.

She said: “Hope cannot survive without support, donations and most importantly time. We have a huge army of volunteers who support every aspect of our work and we’re really grateful for everything.”

Looking to 2024, the Hope Centre team is organising events to raise funds and help people understand the entire breadth of what they do.

The main hope of their biggest campaign, named ‘changing faces of homelessness’, is to change people’s perceptions and raise awareness of the causes.

“It’s not always the traditional image of homelessness,” said Louise. “It’s people like you and me, and those who have had a series of bad luck. It is the impact of the Hope Centre that changes that into a fresh start.”

More information on the Hope Centre’s plans for its 50th anniversary year will be published on the Chronicle & Echo website in early 2024.