Image: Oasis Community Housing’s Hazel Ditchburn and Dave Cawley with Equans’ Laura Bains
Leading energy, services and regeneration specialist Equans has delivered over £8000 of social value activity to support our Sunderland homeless drop-in – the city’s only one – which helps hundreds of people in housing crisis every year.
Through the activity, Equans designed and project managed a shower and washroom renovation for the Park Road Church drop-in centre.
Dave Cawley, who runs the drop-in for homeless charity Oasis Community Housing, said, “The shower at our drop-in might be the only chance people have to get warm, a lifeline this winter.
“About 100 people use the shower and get a fresh set of clothes every month, while accessing support at the drop-in. But the shower room was in great need of renovation.”
Our Sunderland homeless drop-in opened at Park Road Church in February 2018, in the midst of the Beast from the East snowstorm. With rising costs, early prison releases and other strained socio-economic factors, the demand for the charity’s frontline homelessness services continues to grow.
Equans approached Oasis Community Housing shortly after starting refurbishment works at Headworth Court in Sunderland. With a strong focus on social value activities and a drive to add additional positive impact to the city alongside their projects, Equans has given their time and expertise to plan, design and project manage the drop-in refurbishment free of charge.
The firm has worked closely with Isoler who delivered the building, plumbing and fitting of the new shower room.
Laura Bains, Social Value Manager at Equans said, “We were aware that Sunderland City Centre had seen an increase in homelessness over recent years and wanted to do some targeted social value activities to help local people who found themselves in this situation.
“We were introduced to Oasis Community Housing who told us about the need to renovate their shower room, which aligned with the skills and expertise and were happy to be able to help out and give back to the community.”
Commenting on the refurbishment, Oasis Community Housing’s Dave Cawley said, “We are so grateful for the skilled and committed people at Equans and Isoler, who have delivered a brilliant new shower room.
“It may seem a small thing to some, but getting warm and feeling clean is a massive thing to the people we support – who are all blown away by the quality of their new facilities.
“We want everyone to leave the drop-in feeling in a better place than when they arrived, mentally and physically. This will have a huge impact on the lives of hundreds of people who come to us at the drop-in.”
