ROYAL recognition has been given to a charity which has been tirelessly working to end homelessness and poverty in Rugby for nearly 20 years.
Hope4 has been chosen to receive The King’s Award for Voluntary Service – the highest award a local voluntary group can receive in the UK, equivalent to an MBE.
The charity is one of just two Warwickshire organisations to receive the prestigious award this year.
Hope4 started life as a soup kitchen in 2005. It has since expanded to create the Hope Centre, which works with people experiencing homelessness, and Rugby Foodbank. It also runs the town’s Winter Shelter for homeless people in the colder months.
Over 80 volunteers at the charity give over 10,000 hours of their time each year.
Chair of Trustees Diana Mansell said: “This is a great honour, and I am thrilled that our group’s work has been recognised in this way. The award is one of the highest awards any charity can receive.
“It pays enormous tribute to the incredible input and dedication of both our current volunteers and to those who have over the years served Hope4 at the Hope Centre, Rugby Foodbank and the Winter Shelter. The expansion of our work and the lives impacted simply could not have happened without our volunteers.
“Working with people in crisis can be hard because you see so many people struggling, but we know that what we do makes a real difference.
“It is a joy to be part of such an amazing group and such a compassionate community at large in Rugby who support our work in so many ways.”
In the last year, the Hope Centre has worked with over 195 people who are sleeping rough, sofa surfing or in temporary accommodation – providing them with food, warm showers, clean clothing, laundry services, computers, mental and physical health care, English lessons and support with housing and job applications.
In the same period, Rugby Foodbank has handed out over 7,000 food parcels – 40 per cent of them to children.
With over 100 tonnes of food donated by the community each year, the Hope4 volunteers collect, sort and pack tonnes of food each week to support people struggling to afford the essentials – and also offer a listening ear and a warm welcome to people who have fallen on hard times, as well as long-term support through the charity’s financial inclusion programme.
The King’s Award for Voluntary Service aims to recognise outstanding work by local voluntary groups to support their communities. It was created in 2002 to celebrate The Queen’s Golden Jubilee.
Representatives of Hope4 will receive the award crystal and certificate from The Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire, Tim Cox, at a ceremony in Rugby next year. Two volunteers from Hope4 will also attend a garden party at Buckingham Palace next spring.
Visit www.hope4.org.uk and www.rugby.foodbank.org.uk for more information on the charity.
