The Hope Hub

The Hope Hub exists for those in poverty, people who are homeless or at risk of becoming so and we support them for as long as they need our services to progress towards independence and/or training, volunteering and employment. 

As such, most of the people we work with lack key life skills coupled with the lack of belief and desire to cook healthily, often living off processed and fast food meals.

Due to this our successful project focused around funding to support our ‘Cooking on a Budget’ courses to be delivered from The Hope Hub building with access to all our facilities but the pandemic made that a little more tricky than we anticipated.

We were not able to run the first three courses from the building but undeterred we created a 'pop up kitchen' using it in a local park and even in the middle of a church.

Our aims for the course stayed the same to:

  • Be available to anyone in the local community (Surrey Heath and surrounding areas) who will benefit from learning how to cook on a budget
  • Include a visit to the market/supermarket to identify and buy fresh produce, prepare and cook affordable range of healthy meals.
  • Help people integrate again through social interaction and sharing.
  • Create an easy to read, visual cookery book for the community to access either online or in hard copy.
  • Give all participants the opportunity to have a L2 qualification in Food & Safety Hygiene and receive their own apron to take away.
  • Provide training in the use of IT and allow access to our IT Zone.
  • Offer ongoing development support through our existing services to help individuals prepare for volunteering, training and/or employment.

We are so proud of those who have completed the course so far with 50% of participants achieving their Level 2 in food safety and hygiene and the remaining participants at a stage where they can move to complete this as their circumstances allow.

Click on the image below for more details of the course content and find details of case studies telling the stories of some of those who have benefited from this project linked below.

Jack's Story
Dee's Story
Jerry's Story
Ali's volunteering story

 

We have a services pathway comprising crisis and empowerment services supporting with the practical and physiological needs first and then through access to our Living Well services, we seek to work with each person from a strengths based approach and help them become the best they can be.

We actively seek to support each person and encourage a ‘can do’ mind-set and will demonstrate the whole process of being able to manage their money, learn how to cook on a budget, eat more healthily and gain essential IT/digital skills. This will support us in being able to provide a wrap around, holistic service for vulnerable people who are often also struggling with their mental health and/or depression and help them gain confidence and self-belief.

The transformation we see in many of our Clients is significant and a joy.

We look forward to sharing the impact this new project could have on individuals with you and if you would like to know more about us please visit our website 

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