Stonewater donates £10,000 to charity

Four different charities, chosen by colleagues at the leading housing providers, have received a split of the sum as part the initiative.

All Stonewater colleagues were asked to nominate national and local housing-related charities that resonate with Stonewater’s mission; to offer good quality homes and services for people whose needs are not met by the open market.

Nominations were then narrowed down to a shortlist, with colleagues invited to vote for their top four. The winning charities were:

• Trussell Trust, who run 1,400 food banks across the UK, provide a free phone service for people in hardship and campaign for policy changes to end the need for food banks.
• Age UK, the UK’s leading charity for older people, offering a range of services including a friendship phone line, advice service, day centres, IT training and social activities.
• Warming up the Homeless, a charity that supports homeless people in the sutheast through daily outreach, food banks and welfare advocacy.
• Grassrootz, an organisation that runs youth clubs, mentorship programmes, food donations and summer trips for young people across Reading.

They will all receive a split of the £10,000 donation to mark Stonewater’s decade of operations.

Warming up the Homeless Chief Executive, Trudy Hampton, said: “We are truly grateful to Stonewater colleagues for voting for us. The generous donation means we can continue our often life-saving work.”

It will mean the charity we can feed 2,000 people, purchase 35 tents, 57 sleeping bags or produce 80 food bags for people experiencing homelessness on the south-east coast.

Trussell Trust will use the donation to provide both emergency food through food banks and practical support to people in crisis. A donation of £10 could help train a new food bank volunteer, while £25 could help someone facing hardship to access specialist support to get back on their feet.  

Grassrootz founder Kelvin said the money will help him to continue running youth activities, and will be hosting upcoming events close to Stonewater schemes in Reading to benefit local customers.  

Anne Costain, Chief Financial Officer, said: “The initiative presents us with a great opportunity to support these four hardworking and worthy charities chosen by our colleagues as part of our anniversary celebrations.

“The project aligns perfectly with Stonewater’s commitment to making a difference for people in communities across the country and will give us a chance to support organisations that bring meaningful and positive change to people who need it the most. We can’t wait to see how these amazing charities choose to use the money”.

Stonewater has also been celebrating its achievements over the last decade through several other additional activities. These include a ‘10 years, 10 stories’ series and a tree planting session that recently took place in collaboration with the Community Forest Trust.

Nicholas Harris, Stonewater Chief Executive added: “We’re incredibly proud to be celebrating our 10th year of supporting customers across England and working towards our vision of everyone having the opportunity to have a place that they can call home.

“We’re an organisation with a strong social purpose and are committed to addressing the challenges affecting customers and the sector, so making this donation to four worthwhile causes is the perfect testament to that and the work we hope to continue to do over the next decade and beyond.”