Changing Lives

Charity Details

Full Name: The Cyrenians Ltd.
Field: Community Services
Founded: 1970
Headquarters: Gateshead, NE11 0RU
Charity No: 500640

History and Activities

Changing Lives, formerly known as the Cyrenians, is a national organisation tackling homelessness in England. Founded in 1970 it changed its trading name in 2013 to better reflect its purpose. The charity began as a small organization providing hostels and day centres for homeless people, changing tack in 2002 after reconceptualising homelessness as a symptom of a broader range of issues such as poor health, trauma, depression and drug misuse. This led to a new focus on prevention of homelessness while retaining existing services to those in immediate need. Changing Lives thus provides support to individuals recovering from drug and alcohol dependency, women-only services and employment skills training to help individuals gain confidence and interview skills.

In the 2016/17 financial year, a total of 12,428 people accessed one or more of the charity’s services, including 1,403 in housing and homelessness, 7,996 in women’s and criminal justice, and 824 in addiction and recovery. About two-thirds of service users were women. Jo Curry, former chief executive of Changing Lives, argues that money invested in preventative work saves four times what it would cost the taxpayer should people fall into homelessness. The charity’s follow up research on service users had shown that those completing programmes often “go on to do volunteering and we then see examples of people that have become fully functioning taxpayers.”

Vital Statistics (year to 31/03/2017)

Website
https://www.changing-lives.org.uk/

References