Embassy Village: Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity announced as funder of pioneering approach to tackling homelessness
Embassy Village is set to break the cycle of homelessness by providing a home, skills training and wrap around support. This purpose-built village focussed on support and reintegration is about to commence on site this summer, and the latest recipient of one of our grants.
Focussed on street homelessness and rough sleeping, Embassy began as a repurposed luxury tour bus turned shelter, offering a safe place to sleep and full wraparound support to help people get back on their feet. The team quickly learned that the nature of the need far outweighed what a shelter alone could deliver and moved to housing both men and women. The project has a 92% success rate and the Embassy Village will be an upscaling of the work.
Offering 40 high quality homes with a village hall, community hub and lush outdoor space, Embassy Village has huge potential. The Village priorities reintegration into work, helping people regain their financial independence and the confidence needed to move into more permanent private accommodation and break the cycle of homelessness. It is a live, supported practice run at managing a home before moving on.
Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity are proud to support Embassy Village, funding a fulltime Resettlement Team Leader, who will be responsible for finding permanent accommodation for their residents. Laighton – already in post – has previously been supported by our funding, supporting people from the original Embassy bus into work and housing.
“GMMC helped us employ Laighton for a year and he did an incredible job of helping people from the shelter into work and housing. Now, just 4 years on from where we started, we’re building a village of 40 homes and also have launched a load of homes for women elsewhere in the city.
Laighton’s now running a whole team of resettlement workers and we’re so grateful to GMMC for coming back and helping to fund his salary once again as he heads up Embassy Village! It’s great to journey together.”
“Homelessness should only ever be rare, brief and non-recurrent. The work of Laighton, Sid and all at Embassy Village really encapsulates that. It shows how you can work with people who have been rough sleeping, build confidence, grow life skills, and help to get them a home they can call their own and everything they need to get back on their approach.
We are pleased that our grant will mean their residents can secure their future with the help of Laighton and their team of resettlement workers. We’re looking forward to seeing more of how they get on.”
If you would like to help us continue to support organisations like Embassy Village, please consider donating today.
