Working with homeless people

‘I found reconnecting with work, with people and with the world immensely rewarding. It opened up and restored opportunity. And when you are homeless, opportunity and choice are very rare commodities indeed.’
Sam, our 100th Ready for Work placement. Sam was a homeless ex-Army sergeant who found himself living rough on the streets for five months. He was speaking at a Project Compass fundraising event attended by HRH the Prince of Wales.

In London, since 2000 we have supported a programme designed to equip homeless people with the skills to gain and sustain employment, achieve independent living and break the cycle of homelessness by providing work experience, job coaching, informal support schemes and pro bono legal advice. Key to the programme is our award-winning Ready for Work initiative.

We also give pro bono advice to charities such as Crisis and Habitat for Humanity, and volunteers provide pro bono legal advice on a weekly basis at the Dellow Centre, a drop-in legal advice centre for homeless people hosted by the charity Providence Row.

We support StreetShine, a social enterprise giving people who have been homeless an opportunity to break into the labour market and earn a regular income, and are involved in the Crisis Christmas e-card initiative.

In 2006/7, as part of our long-running support of Habitat for Humanity, 60 volunteers spent a week each building houses in South Africa for families supporting children whose parents have died of AIDS.

Sponsoring Shelter’s Children’s Legal Service

‘It is shocking that in this day and age there are over 100,000 homeless children in England. These children are an invisible group – all too often ignored and sidelined by the system. The Children’s Legal Service will be key to challenging unfair practice in court and create precedent in law which will pave the way for ending child homelessness for good. We are massively grateful for Freshfields support, both in terms of legal support and their unprecedented financial contribution to Shelter.’
Adam Sampson, Shelter’s chief executive

In November 2007, we announced our three-year sponsorship of Shelter’s new Children’s Legal Service as part of the charity’s Keys to the Future initiative, designed to end child homelessness. We are providing funds of over £232,000 over three years, as well as extensive pro bono legal support to the Children’s Legal Service, as we see this as an opportunity to make a real and lasting positive impact on people’s lives.

In 2008, we will be encouraging volunteers to get involved in the Keys to the Future project in Newham, which offers support to local children living in temporary accommodation with no permanent home. In September 2006, there were 6,947 children in temporary housing in Newham, one of the highest figures in the country. The project hopes to get homeless children back into school quickly and will be looking for volunteers to give these children one-to-one support and attention to help them overcome obstacles, develop their potential and enjoy learning.

Business Action on Homelessness

We seek to share our experience, learn from others and encourage other employers to work with homeless people through active participation in Business in the Community’s Business Action on Homelessness national and London and South East leadership teams. Partner Philip Richards and partner and chairman of the London management committee Tim Jones represent us on these groups.