Tag: Fresh Start

Fresh Start Community Picnic at North Edinburgh Arts

Fresh Start Community Picnic

Thursday 11th July from 4 – 7pm

at North Edinburgh Arts

Working with partners across Edinburgh and with volunteer teams, Fresh Start support people previously homeless to ‘make a home’ for themselves in new tenancies. We enable them to resettle in their community, providing volunteering opportunities that offer practical and emotional support, helping them develop life skills, and involving church members and the wider community in our work to end homelessness.

We achieve this by providing essential household goods and decorating services to help people set up home. We also help those who are unemployed gain skills, experience and qualifications that will increase their employability – including gardening, cooking and employability training.

In addition to the practical support we provide, Fresh Start service-users have identified the need for support to help them feel at home in their new community as well as in their new tenancy. They highlighted the advantages that would come from being able to get to know local people, to develop skills and be able to access services and opportunities in a neighbourhood location and be able to get involved in community activities including  in evenings and at weekends.

Fresh Start has been based in North Edinburgh for 20 years and we now have the opportunity to take over some currently unused adjacent premises to create a community hub.

Working with other community organisations, we have been looking at ways in which we can bring this space back into community use. We want to create a hub that will work for the whole community ensuring that people new to the area have access to a space where they can meet with local people, develop skills and make a contribution to the community.

To make sure that this becomes a place where people can feel part of, and connected to, their local community we want to know what you would like to see happening in the Hub.

We would appreciate it if you would complete the questionnaire below.  This should take no more than 10 minutes.
All answers are confidential. If you want more information or additional copies of the survey, please contact Wilma at Community Enterprise – Tel: 01506 862227.
All survey responses (including those collected on paper) are recorded on Survey Monkey whose privacy policy can be viewed here.
Community Enterprise’s privacy policy can be viewed here

Fresh Start seeks your views on new Community Hub

Fresh Start are looking to create a community Hub in North Edinburgh. Working with other community organisations, we have been looking at ways in which we can work with the whole community ensuring that people new to the area have access to a space where they can meet with local people, develop skills and make a contribution to the community. Continue reading Fresh Start seeks your views on new Community Hub

Courier delivers Fresh Start to the homeless

A LEADING courier company has been using its scale for good by helping homeless people in the capital get a fresh start. Eagle Couriers has been teaming up with Edinburgh-based charity, Fresh Start, to spread the news of how volunteering and donations can help ‘people make a home for themselves’.

The firm, which is based in Bathgate, currently delivers 5,000 newsletters for the charity each year, circulating news of Fresh Start’s appeals and fundraising – and has committed to continue delivering the leaflets in 2019. Over the last few years, free distribution of the newsletters by the courier company has saved the charity around £3,000.

Biddy Kelly, Managing Director at Fresh Start, said: “Fresh Start is extremely grateful for all the support we receive.  

“From volunteering with our services to donating essential household items for our Starter Packs, this help ensures that we are able to continue supporting some of the most vulnerable people in our communities.

“We cannot thank Eagle Couriers enough for their help in delivering our newsletters. They have been doing so for the last few years and have helped to spread the word of what we do and what we want to achieve.

“Homelessness is still a worryingly big problem in our community, but the support from businesses, groups and individuals who donate goods, money or their time does bring some comfort to the situation.”

Set up 20 years ago in West Pilton, Fresh Start’s mission is to help people make a home for themselves by providing them with the everyday essentials needed to turn an empty shell into a home.

Through cooking classes and growing spaces, the charity offers opportunities for people to learn new skills, build confidence and self-esteem. The organisation’s training initiative also provides those who are unemployed with skills, experience and qualifications to get back into the workplace.

Fiona Deas, Co-Director of Eagle Couriers, said: “The team at Eagle Couriers is delighted to be able to help Fresh Start get individuals who have been sleeping rough back living in safe and secure homes.

“It’s the little things that we take for granted in life, like having a warm place to sleep and the tools to make a meal when you are hungry. Those who have lost their home don’t always have the basics on hand when they first move in to new accommodation.

“By delivering the charity’s newsletters free of charge, we hope that we can help spread the message and the fantastic work that all of those involved do to give homeless people in the community a lifeline.

“At this time of year it is more important than ever to consider those who may need a hand in order to get back on their feet. We can all do our bit to help.”

With Christmas fast approaching, Fresh Start is ensuring people who are and have experienced homelessness are receiving the help they need through its annual Cookers for Christmas Appeal.

Biddy added: “After someone has experienced a period of homelessness, a cooker for their new home is a luxury that unfortunately many cannot afford.

“Around the Christmas period this lack of amenity is felt further as the messages of indulging in delicious treats and sitting down for tasty meals are shown almost at the turn of every corner.

“Fresh Start wants to make this a reality for people who have been homeless and provide them with a brand new cooker, fully fitted by a trained and professional team.

“Any small donation would be gratefully welcomed and will go towards providing someone with a new cooker that will make a real difference to their festive period and their life going forward.”

You can donate to Fresh Start’s Cookers for Christmas Appeal online by visiting https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/cookersforChristmas2018 or by sending a cheque to 22-24 Ferry Road Drive, Edinburgh, EH4 4BR.

Other goods the charity are looking for people to donate over the Christmas period include cleaning products, new pots and pans sets, toiletries, food goods and light bulbs.

To find out more about Fresh Start visit www.freshstartweb.org.uk

Eagle Couriers is Scotland’s leading courier firm with more than 32 years’ experience. More information about the company can be found at www.eaglecouriers.co.uk

Putting the boot in for Fresh Start

Customised Doc Martens raise over £1000 in raffle for local charity Fresh Start 

Customised boots by Dr. Martens' Cobbs Lane Apprentice FrankieThe Dr. Martens Edinburgh team demonstrated its ongoing support for the local art and charity scene when they attended the fifth annual Scottish Tattoo Convention recently. 

The global footwear brand set-up shop alongside some of the world’s most renowned artists and entertainers at the Corn Exchange, in aid of the homelessness charity Fresh Start.

An impressive line-up of tattooists from the convention set to work in customising Dr. Martens’ product with an inked-based twist.

Making use of mixed-mediums, products were embellished with hand-drawn or painted designs as well as leather tattooing or etching, raising over £1,000 as part of a charity raffle – the proceeds from which will support people who have been homeless to resettle successfully.

Jenni, Jenny & FrankieDr. Martens Edinburgh store manager, Jenni Birrell said: “After a huge success last year, we are so pleased that this year has been equally as triumphant. The team are big fans of tattoo culture – myself included – so being a part of the convention is a perfect fit.

“We selected Fresh Start as our chosen charity for the second year running because of the close work they do in helping the city’s community and it’s important to us to do our bit on a local level.”

Keith Robertson, Managing Director of Fresh Start, said: “We are delighted that Dr. Martens has chosen to support Fresh Start once again at such a well-attended international event. Each year we provide goods and support to over 2,000 of the most vulnerable households in Edinburgh and this is only possible due to the support we receive from the wider community.

“Dr. Martens’ support will enable us to help people who are moving into an empty tenancy with the goods they need to make their house a home.”

Fresh Start

 

Fresh Start is Lothian Buses charity of the year

Fresh Start

FRESH START, the Pilton-based charity that helps people who have been homeless get established in their new home, has been announced as Lothian Buses’ Charity of the Year for 2015. 

Throughout 2015, Lothian Buses and Fresh Start will work together on a number of projects including a special bus wrap advertising the work the charity do, visits for the charity’s families to the bus depots, fundraising through staff events and the opportunity for the company’s 2000+ staff to volunteer with the charity.

Tony Depledge, Chair of Lothian Buses said: “Supporting a local charity every year is really important to us. This year we decided to choose a charity that was significantly different to previous years and Fresh Start is exactly that.

“Homelessness can affect anyone and its great that we can highlight the important work that they do. 

“We look forward to working with the Fresh Start team over the course of 2015, helping to raise the profile of the charity in our local community whilst having fun raising funds for this fantastic cause.”

Since 2012, Lothian Buses has appointed a Charity of the Year in order to help the organisation benefit from focused fundraising and awareness activities. The Yard, another project based in North Edinburgh, was Lothian Buses’ chosen charity last year and previous recipients include It’s Good 2 Give and Lothian Austistic Society.

FreshStart logo

Keith Robertson, Fresh Start’s Managing Director said: “This is a great opportunity for us. For a local charity like ours working in the Edinburgh & Lothian area, it will raise awareness of what we do and what homelessness means.  Being homeless can have a devastating effect on families and individuals. They lose not only their belongings, but their confidence and self-esteem.  We help them to settle in their new home and back into the community.  This partnership with Lothian Buses will enable us to reach more people than ever before.”

For more information visit:

http://www.freshstartweb.org.uk

www.lothianbuses.com

lothian buses

FreshStart logo

STV Appeal supports Fresh Start

logo

North Edinburgh based community project Fresh Start has received £2,000 from the STV Appeal 2014.

Based on Ferry Road Drive, Fresh Start is an Edinburgh charity that helps people who have been homeless by providing starter packs of essential household items. For many people who have been homeless and have lost everything, the packs provide a real lifeline in the early days of a new tenancy. Last year the charity created 10,973 packs to help over 2000 new households, helping to make a huge difference to the quality of people’s lives in their new home. The grant from the STV Appeal will be used to help Fresh Start increase the number of packs it produces and delivers in 2015.

Keith Robertson, managing director at Fresh Start, said: “These packs help to relieve the financial burden and initial stress that many new tenants face, especially when providing for households with children.”

Sir Tom Hunter, trustee of the STV Appeal, said: “Yet again the people of Scotland have cast their vote – end child poverty. Through the STV Appeal we are attempting to deliver sustainable solutions to do just that. It is simply unacceptable in modern Scotland to still have young people debilitated by poverty, through this project and many more the people of Scotland are doing their level best to combat poverty.”

This year’s STV Appeal is now well underway with an exciting line-up of fundraising activities planned for 2015.