A community of professionals came together to actively seek to give back to help others by making a donation to a cause that could immediately have an impact on the lives of young people aged 16-21 who face homelessness or need help finding accommodation in East Lancashire.
M3 Project is a specialist charity in East Lancashire that can help with advice, support and accommodation if young people are at risk of homelessness, or actually homeless.
They provide supported lodgings accommodation for single young people, supported properties for young parents (and their children) as well as homeless prevention work through mediation.
The M3 Project provides a home. They get homeless young people back into education, training or work. They also help vulnerable young people get physically and mentally healthy. They do this with through generous donations, grant funding and corporate support to make this happen.
The money which was donated had an immediate positive impact, as M3 Charity Officer, Jayne Turner explains, “We are using the money to buy essential household items for young people when they move into their own homes. With the donation, I have purchased a microwave and a hoover for 2 teenage mums. The rising cost of energy has meant they have not been able to save enough to buy more costly items themselves and it is often cheaper to use a microwave than an oven.
We were also able to move an 18-year-old mum with her new baby into one of our supported houses over the weekend. She had been on our waiting list for 7 months from early in the pregnancy living in a homeless hostel. When she left the hospital she was allocated temporary social housing and when we visited her we discovered that the central heating boiler was broken so she had no hot water or heating. The only pieces of furniture she had were a bed and a cot. There were no curtains or carpets either. She had to wash herself and the baby with wet wipes.
Thankfully one of our houses became available and we were able to move her in quickly. All our houses are fully furnished and we have also been able to give her a microwave, hoover, crockery and pots and pans etc which we bought with the donation. It will make a big difference to her.”
In 2022 the M3 Project housed 17 young mums with 20 children and 15 single young people. The majority of these have lived with them for over 6 months before moving on and at the time of writing, they currently have 17 young people living in our supported accommodation. Every young person receives a tailored support package with trained staff helping them to learn the skills they need to manage a home, live independently and access education or work.
The M3 Listening Project has also worked in partnership with schools, colleges and the NHS East Lancs Child and Adolescent Service with 11 young people ‘at risk’ young people who needed one-to-one support with their wellbeing, giving them an opportunity to talk and work through strategies for resolving relationship problems at home.
If you would like to find out more about the work the M3 Project does, you can visit their website here