Simple Life Donates £100,000 to 4 Charities

In addition to our existing support for local communities and organisations, in 2020 Simple Life has donated a further £100,000 to four specially selected organisations. The charities were chosen by staff, with the effects of COVID-19 on fundraising in mind, and our Simple Life residents helped determine the level of donations given to each.

Charity Poll

Our chosen charities were Mind UK (focused on mental health), Trussell Trust Foodbanks (focused on the emergency provision of food to people in need throughout the UK), Women’s Aid (focused on keeping women and children safe from domestic violence) and Centrepoint (working to prevent homelessness in children and young adults).

This year’s donations took on an interactive stance with Simple Life residents getting involved and sharing their thoughts on which charity they wished to contribute to. Each organisation was guaranteed a minimum of £12,500, with the remaining £50,000 to be split proportionally based on our residents’ votes. Championing community and charity within Simple Life, we are well aware that this year many people are struggling financially and are not able to support causes they may have usually donated to themselves. Therefore residents were still able to show their support for the charity closest to their heart by voting through an online poll.

Running for a month, the final results were in and the remaining funds were split as follows:

Charity% of VoteTotal Donation
Mind UK38.96%£31,980
Women's Aid25.97%£25,480
Centrepoint24.68%£24,840
The Trussell Trust10.39%£17,700

All four charities do exceptional work in their fields, and it’s great to see the real impact these donations will make to help them continue to support the community in a time where their services are needed more than ever.

 

Centrepoint

“Each year, 100,000 16-25 year olds face the terrifying experience of becoming homeless. Centrepoint exists to provide a safety net to these vulnerable young people, and ensure they can find a path towards a better future. None of the fantastic work we do would be possible, so we are incredibly grateful for Simple Life’s support.” Hannah Jones, Regional Fundraising Manager.

Our donation of £24,840 can be used to provide 39 young people with a full suite of psychotherapy sessions, or it can run Centrepoint’s national helpline for 18 days, providing advice and assistance to young people in crisis.

Centerpoint holding a cheque

Mind UK

“As you can imagine, Covid-19 has had a huge impact on the nation’s mental health and is a whole new challenge for Mind to support the increasing numbers of people needing mental health support across the country. We know that after an acute crisis, 40% of a population are more likely to experience poor mental health. Simple Life’s support will help us ensure that anyone experiencing a mental health problem receives the help they need now and in the future.” Beth Knudsen, Corporate Partnerships Assistant

Our donation of £31,980 can keep Mind’s Infoline running for over 250 hours and answering over 3,100 potentially life-saving calls, or it could run a text service for children and young people for over 1,450 hours.

 

The Trussell Trust

“Thank you, on behalf of the Trussell Trust and, perhaps more importantly, the hundreds of thousands of people who are supported by our network of food banks: a huge thank you. Through the generous support we have received from Simple Life we have begun to make progress tackling the unprecedented challenges we face and been able to continue to ensure food is delivered to those most vulnerable in isolation.

Your donation means we can remain agile to respond to the changing situation and ensure food banks continue to provide the lifeline of emergency food and additional support for people in crisis. We would not have been able to make so much progress over the past month without your incredible support.” Sophie Carre, Head of Corporate Parnterships

Last year The Trussell Trust network gave out 1.6 million three-day emergency food supplies to people in crisis and 500,000 of these went to children. This is a 23% increase on the previous year and a 73% increase in the last 5 years. Latest figures from food banks in the Trussell Trust network show during April 2020, there was an 89% increase in need for emergency food parcels compared to the same month last year, with a staggering 107% rise in parcels for children.

 

Women’s Aid

“Your generosity will help women and children experiencing abuse. Our combination of campaigning, research, training and direct services creates real change in the response to domestic abuse and can be life-saving for survivors.

“The coronavirus outbreak has had a monumental impact on women experiencing domestic abuse, and on our work at Women’s Aid. For many survivors, home is not a safe place, and being isolated with a perpetrator has greatly increased the risk of domestic abuse, as well as limited the times when women have been able to seek support. Demand for our Live Chat Helpline has soared and our members have needed help as they faced this unprecedented crisis. We have been able to adapt and extend the reach of our services, however we have always been wary of a further increase in demand for our services as the lockdown restrictions are eased, and more women feel able to reach out for support. We therefore appreciate your generosity more than ever.” Cordelia Lodge, Fundraising Partnerships Support Officer

 

Thank you to everyone who participated by voting and helping us support these brilliant causes.