For more than 30 years, the Cardinal Hume Centre has helped people overcome poverty and the threat of homelessness. We work with individuals and families of all ages, from all backgrounds.
We run a range of specialist services, providing advice and practical support to help people in need turn their lives around.
The Benedictine ethos of our founder, Cardinal Basil Hume, underpins all that we do: we offer a non-judgmental, warm welcome to all those seeking our support.
The Centre celebrates that everyone who comes over our threshold is a unique human being. We acknowledge that human need is complex and therefore our response should be multi-layered. We know what one size does not fit all and so our approach is to work with each client on a one-to-one basis wherever possible.
The first question we ask is ‘what do you want to achieve?’ By taking this approach, we are able to move away from simply categorising someone as homeless, a single parent, unemployed, a migrant or asylum seeker, and tailor our services to meet a person’s specific and often complex needs. Our ultimate goal is to help people achieve greater resilience and wellbeing. Our work is targeted at supporting people to overcome the barriers they face in achieving this.
VisionWe strive towards a society where every individual has a safe place to live and the right to access the support and opportunities they need to fulfil their potential.
MissionThe Cardinal Hume Centre enables people to gain the skills they need to overcome poverty and homelessness. We focus on four areas; income, housing, education and skills, and legal status. The Centre gives homeless young people, families in need and local people support to realise their full potential.
Values
Our specialist teams help individuals and families access the support, and gain the skills they need, to overcome poverty and the threat of homelessness. Our staff and volunteers work in six key areas:
Advice and Assessment CentreWe are the first port of call for people coming to the Centre for help: we welcome them, assess their situation and find ways to help them turn their lives around.We provide basic housing and welfare rights advice and can also refer people to relevant specialist teams, either here at the Centre or with trusted partners.
Family and Young People’s ServicesWe help children, young people and their families to become more resilient through learning and playing together.We run a range of activities to help children, young people and their families strengthen their relationships, and improve their health and well-being.Our qualified staff provide fun, stimulating and educational activities for children and young people to encourage their social, emotional and intellectual development.
Housing and Welfare RightsWe provide specialist advice and support to people living in poverty or facing homelessness, enabling them to keep a roof over their head.Our housing advice team helps people who are facing eviction, living in unsuitable accommodation, dealing with disrepair in their homes or challenging local authority decisions about their housing applications.Our welfare rights team provide advice to our staff and take on complex benefits cases, enabling clients to receive their full entitlements.
Immigration Advice and RepresentationWe provide free legal advice to help migrants get or extend their right to remain in the UK so they have the same rights and freedoms as UK citizens.Our experienced solicitors advise and represent clients from the start of an application all the way through to appeal hearings and, if necessary, judicial review.We advise and represent child asylum seekers living at the Centre as they apply for refugee status. We also act for asylum seekers.
Learning and EmploymentWe help people learn new skills or find work, enabling them to build their confidence, communicate clearly and fulfil their potential.We support people in low paid part-time work who are struggling to make ends meet to get into full time employment.We run a range of engaging classes for beginner and intermediate level students needing to learn IT skills, English (ESOL) and life skills.
Residential servicesWe provide homeless young people with safe accommodation and round-the-clock support, giving them strong foundations for the future.Each young person living with us has a named support worker to address their needs, realise their goals and encourage their independence.We connect our young residents to other services we provide at the Centre, enabling them to develop their knowledge and skills, get into education or employment, and improve their prospects during their time with us.We provide a specialist package of support to unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASCs), including lifeskills, one-to-one English lessons, employment support and immigration advice.
We provide tailored support to deal with each person’s different needs so they can make informed choices about their future. Much of our work is done on a one-to-one basis.