Helping Embassy give residents a starting chance
14th Apr 2021
Here at Greenfingers, we’re dedicated to helping worthy causes in our local community. Over the past few years, we’ve worked closely with Manchester homeless charity, Embassy, an organisation focused on ensuring the homeless have a safe place to sleep at night.
Embassy has provided shelter to the homeless for many years using a converted bus. However, as with many organisations they have had to reinvent themselves due to the global pandemic. Since adapting to lockdown restrictions, they’ve moved their sheltered accommodation into rented houses, but unfortunately, this means they’re unable to help as many people. They have kept going despite this, giving people a roof over their head, supporting them with benefits and helping them get back on their feet and into work.
The ultimate aim for Embassy is to be able to get someone back into work and their own accommodation and that’s where we’ve been able to help.
In the run-up to Christmas last year, our office team spent hours making hampers for all the Embassy residents. We visited various properties delivering hampers, putting up Christmas trees and many of the staff spent time chatting with the residents about their pasts and hopes for the future. These conversations were what led to our latest initiative; to offer suitable candidates work, first during a trial period that could then lead to a full-time position.
From speaking to Charles, a resident at Embassy, we decided to offer him a 1-month trial. Initially, this would be working just one day a week, mainly to see if he liked the kind of work we do and secondly to ensure it would work out long-term. It’s safe to say we were all delighted from day one and so impressed with how he was so happy to get stuck in with the work needed. He comes into work early, rain or shine with a big smile on his face and just gets on with it. It’s clear that he enjoys being outside and doing physical work and he’s a natural at anything we ask him to do. Charles completed a 6-week trial at Greenfingers and this month we were able to offer him a full-time position. The smile on his face when he found out was unbelievable and he was straight on the phone to Embassy to let them know.
Now Charles will be part of the Greenfingers team full time, he will be trained up in all aspects of the job, gaining lots of new skills and qualifications. We’re looking forward to seeing his progression and hopefully, he will be with us for a long time to come.
Greenfingers will be looking to continue this initiative with Embassy for other residents in the future. If you would like to find out more, please get in touch.
