CRASH Celebrates its 20th Anniversary and Expands its Services to Benefit Hospices as well as Homelessness Charities

News provided by

CRASH

14 Jan, 2016, 11:42 GMT

LONDON, January 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

  • CRASH's History: Two Decades of Fighting Homelessness
  • CRASH's Future: Helping Hospices as well as Homelessness Charities

CRASH, the construction industry's charity, is proud to celebrate 20 years of giving the sector's expertise and generosity to create environments that care for people in homelessness projects. The charity is also pleased to announce that, from 2016, it will officially expand its beneficiary base to include UK hospices, allowing CRASH to help even more people.

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Two decades of fighting homelessness 

Over the last 20 years, CRASH has supported homelessness charities to build and renovate shelters and hostels for the most vulnerable people in society. In its early beginnings, founder Tony Denison saw an unacceptable number of people sleeping on the streets in London while countless office buildings stood empty. With his background in construction, Tony had the skills, contacts and knowledge to galvanise the support of the sector as well as property owners to re-fit these vacant buildings as temporary shelters for homelessness charities to offer support for the homeless men and women of the capital.

Since then, more and more patron companies from the construction sector have lent their vital support to not only build temporary shelters but also to work with homelessness charities to create permanent, safe spaces for the people they help. CRASH relies entirely on the generosity of their patrons to offer a unique combination of pro bono professional expertise, building materials and cash grants to the charities they support.

The charity is commemorating its achievements to date with a publication, '20 Years of CRASH', which not only reflects on its past success but also looks to the future as the charity enters its third decade. The publication can be viewed here: http://www.crash.org.uk/20yearsbrochure/ 

The future of CRASH: helping hospices as well as homelessness charities 

CRASH announced at the end of 2015 that, as well as continuing its work for homeless people into 2016, they will be extending their services to benefit hospices as well. In the UK there are over 200 adult hospices and 40 children's hospices looking after people with life-limiting illnesses, and many of these are in urgent need of rebuilding or refurbishment. One of CRASH's first projects will be to rebuild St Michael's Hospice in Hastings, which was destroyed tragically in an arson attack.

Like homelessness charities, hospices do crucial work to support people at their most vulnerable, and the environments in which they do this have a huge impact on the wellbeing of both residents and carers. CRASH is committed to expanding its beneficiary base to include hospices, to provide modern, high quality accommodation to more people in need.

About CRASH 

CRASH is the construction industry's charity. We are a practical charity that channels the expertise, products and generosity of the industry to create places that care for vulnerable people in homelessness projects and hospices.

CRASH is unique in the way we construct caring environments by:

  • Offering pro bono professional expertise
  • Sourcing building materials and the technical knowledge to use them
  • Awarding cash grants

Well designed and expertly built environments have a positive effect on how we all feel and behave. This is especially true for homeless, vulnerable or sick people and those who care for them.

View our "Make a Difference as a Patron of CRASH" and "Help us Build on our Success" adverts here:

http://multivu.prnewswire.com/prnehost/CRASH_ads_Make_a_difference.pdf

http://multivu.prnewswire.com/prnehost/CRASH_ads_Help_us_build_v2.pdf

For more information, or interviews with key figures of CRASH, please contact Emma Brophy on +44-(0)20-8742-0717 or email ebrophy@crash.org.uk.

http://www.crash.org.uk

Note to Editors:

A picture/s accompanying this release is available through the PA Photowire. It can be downloaded from http://www.pa-mediapoint.press.net or viewed at http://www.mediapoint.press.net or http://www.prnewswire.co.uk.

SOURCE CRASH