Long Eaton Christian Homeless Charity
Actively Working for the Community
The Canaan Trust have been working within our community in Long Eaton for the last ten years, providing supported temporary accommodation to single people who found themselves homeless. Homelessness is a very real issue today and brings with it a whole range of other complex needs and issues. As a non-profit making Christian organisation, our vision is to provide a large property or properties to a high standard of excellence where all residents can be together as a family and grow within a homely, loving, Christian residence with 24 hour care.
Our team of staff led by our board of Trustees (all volunteers) and our Project Manager work to develop our residents in every area – reconciling families, addressing addictions, obtaining educational and vocational goals, developing social skills, life skills, leisure activities and healthy relationships, becoming independent and maturing spiritually. The support we offer is geared to the individual and we have learned that a positive experience for one person is not necessarily the same for another.
The Promised Land
From 1 April 2005 we became Canaan Trust – the entire ‘business’ and assets of The Aspire Trust being transferred – and as Canaan in biblical terms was referred to as ‘the promised land’, we are excited that this event is celebrated. We currently house 12 single males – 9 in a hostel (bed-sit) accommodation and 3 in a shared house near the town centre – and we are pursuing our vision to grow in seeking a further large property. It has been a privilege to serve the local community in this way and we are very grateful to our neighbours for their support and understanding.
Our volunteers are largely from Long Eaton’s churches and if anyone is interested in supporting this work then please contact the Project Manager, Kevin Curtis on 0115 9464903.
If you believe that you can support us in any way – through volunteering, financially or in any other way – then please contact us. Our Project Manager Kevin Curtis will be pleased to hear from you and can be contacted on 0115 9464903, or at our office at 14 Main Street, Long Eaton.
Our support focusses on living skills and career education through the input of local colleges and training establishments. All of our work is accredited by Supporting People. We monitor and evaluate our support and outcomes via the Supporting People Quality Assessment Framework, and via our own in-house developed Living Skills Programme .
Our Christian ethos inspires our staff to serve the men (and women) we support in a way that shows love, respect, and acceptance, regardless of their history, circumstances or beliefs. Most importantly, we seek to show and communicate our belief in them, their dreams and aspirations, and we have seen them respond in kind towards our staff and each other.
We may sometimes couche our language in somewhat “religious” terms, often reflecting our history and the culture of our prevailing supporter base. But we believe that our results show evidence of our success as a holistic service that values and promotes wholeness (health) in mind, body and spirit.
And seeing such results inspires us further to ensure that everything we do reflects our commitment to pursue excellence.
What we do
As an Amber-rated Supporting People provider, we offer temporary accommodation and tailored support for single people aged 16-54 who are dealing with the multi-faceted causes and effects of homelessness.
Currently our services are solely for men, and are accessed predominantly by people in the age range 16-25, which says more about homelessness in our locality than anything else. We have achieved Level B on most elements of the Supporting People Quality Assurance Framework, and we are committed to improving further for the sake of our service users.
In the year to March 2008 we received 166 referrals of which we were able to place 25 within the service.