SUEZ donates total of £400,000 towards tackling homelessness across Greater Manchester
SUEZ recycling and recovery UK have made their annual £100,000 donation to the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity, set up to help tackle homelessness across the city-region. SUEZ took on the waste contracts on behalf of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) in 2019 and have since donated a total of £400,000 in support of the Mayor’s Charity.
The annual donation is raised by the award winning Renew Greater Manchester project, where items donated by Greater Manchester residents at local SUEZ operated recycling centres are sold to raise money for good causes. Renew Greater Manchester is an ambitious joint initiative between SUEZ and GMCA to create value from waste to benefit local people.
Donated items are repaired and renewed at the Renew Hub, ready to be sold to a new home at the regions three Renew Greater Manchester shops. Since it launched in 2021 Greater Manchester residents have bought over 280,000 individual items and helped raise over £1.2m for good causes, including £400,000 to the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity. With the recently agreed extension to the waste contracts through to 2034, the amount expected to be donated to the cause will total almost £1.5million.
“We are really proud to support the local communities in the places that we operate. Delivering social, economic and environmental benefits for residents is central to our work in contracts such as Greater Manchester, and we know that this annual donation will help the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity make a real difference to people who need it urgently.”
The donation supports the Charity in their mission to raise vital fund to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping in Greater Manchester. With the support of SUEZ, the Charity has been able to establish a new staff team over the past 12 months and have launched a brand new calendar of events to raise funds for and awareness of the work in Greater Manchester to end homelessness. Notable highlights include a charity ‘Bus Pull’ which raised over £30,000 in one day, also supported by volunteers from the Renew Hub.
“We could not do what we do without the support of the Renew Hub and SUEZ. Their donation means the charity has an operational team actively working to support organisations on the frontline of the housing and homelessness crisis in Greater Manchester. We are able to put on more events, raise more money, and deliver a policy series that can shine a light on just what is needed to tackle homelessness and truly eradicate the need for rough sleeping. The funds they donate are transformative.”
The Charity’s flagship initiative, A Bed Every Night, provides a bed and vital personal support for people facing a night on the streets of Greater Manchester. This provides people with stability and security and starts the journey of helping them get back on their feet and into a home of their own.
The Charity has provided more than 78,700 nights of accommodation and wraparound support through A Bed Every Night. It has supported over 167 other organisations across the city-region with initiatives to stop homelessness before it becomes a reality and provide targeted support to a range of groups dealing with housing instability. This has included providing additional resource to the homelessness ecosystem by funding the Network Manager for the Greater Manchester Homelessness Network, funding the Resettlement Team Leader at innovative new development, Embassy Village, and supporting a project addressing risk of homelessness for people when discharged from hospital.
Greater Manchester residents can help support Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity simply by shopping at the Renew Greater Manchester shops and online.