Agents Do Charity - books, sailing, and a lot of work for the homeless

Thanks very much to everyone getting in touch to publicise their efforts for good causes: we’re always delighted to help.

Just let us know on press@estateagenttoday.co.uk and we’ll do the rest. Good luck to everyone featured this week - there are a lot of kind hearts out there...

Homeless Charities: Throughout March, homeless charities can apply for up to £15,000 of funding for their projects and organisations from The Fine & Country Foundation grant scheme.

This is the first grant scheme launched by The Fine & Country Foundation, which seeks to support and raise awareness for homeless charities in the UK and overseas. 

The application deadline is March 31 and eligible charities can request funding for a number of different projects, from mortgage payments and new fridges, to beds and computer classes for their users.

Successful grants will be distributed in May 2018. The Fine & Country Foundation will continue to stay in touch with all the charities to see the incredible work that they achieve, and to help raise awareness of the causes of homelessness.

Are you a homelessness charity in need of funding? For full details on the grant scheme, please visit www.fineandcountryfoundation.com.

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World Book Day: Housebuilder Lovell Homes has donated £300 worth of book tokens to two local schools to help mark World Book Day.

Lovell Homes, who is currently building at its Greetham Gardens development in Greetham donated £150 of vouchers each to St Nicholas CE Primary School and Cottesmore Millfield Academy, in Cottesmore near Oakham.

Each school invited pupils to dress up as book characters in celebration of World Book Day, where children across the country are encouraged to come together to appreciate reading.

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Taff Housing Association Pop Up Homeless Shelter: Taff Housing Association staff gave up their time to help run a temporary homeless shelter during the recent extreme weather, with the backing of Cardiff council’s homelessness services.  

The support of local businesses, volunteers, Community Housing Cymru, Adore Cardiff and Taff Staff members enabled the shelter to be a success, helped further by Taff Housing Association’s Board members who raised money to help ensure the pop up could remain open and provide services in such extreme weather. Kind donations and offers of support were received from all walks of life.

Volunteer, David Hardacre, reflected on his experience: “The feeling of powerlessness and fear when homeless must be immense and the thought renders me heartbroken yet determined to help further. Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn.”

Thomas Morris Coat Appeal: There’s still a short amount of time left to donate coats to the Thomas Morris cold weather coat appeal - the appeal closes tomorrow, March 10. 

In association with the charity Agents Giving, the firm’s seven offices have volunteered to operate as collection centres for any spare coats you may have - they will then be delivered to approved local organisations for distribution to local people or donated to local charity shops.

There's a great short video explaining the idea, which you can see at the bottom of this edition of Agents Do Charity.

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Turn To Starboard: Cornish estate agent Chris Wood writes that as a reservist for many years, with good friends in the forces, he is aware that operations on which they have served affect people in different ways, including those left at home.  

“I have my story, part of which was a sense of deep guilt that I was not there when my boss, a young officer who jokingly called me 'Dad' and I him 'son' was fatally injured in a roadside bomb.

“Turn to Starboard helped me through a very dark patch by rekindling my love of the sea and sailing and teaching me new skills. The guys who were with me in that first week, a couple of whom had never sailed before, had far more challenging injuries but were clearly different people by the end of a few days out on the water and were happier, more settled people when they stepped ashore every night.

“In the following months i've been involved, I've seen families reconnect, men and women become happier, more self-confident and relaxed about life. It is an amazing charity that does incredible work.”

You can find out more and donate here.

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Fine & Country Foundation: the Fine & Country Interior Design team has helped in the fight against the root causes of homelessness by donating £100 of each new licenced design firm they sign up. 

Clients are invited to give a donation upon completion alongside the office.

The donations generated will go into The Fine & Country grant programme, which is opening this month. 

Alice Barrington-Wells, chief executive at Fine & Country Interior Design said: “We feel humbled by the incredible work the whole Fine & Country network does to raise money for these important homeless charities. We look forward to doing all we can ourselves to support the homeless and shine a spotlight on the issue.”