A HOSTEL for the homeless has received close to half a million pounds in lottery funding which will mean the service is much more than a 'revolving door' for rough sleepers.  

St Paul's Hostel in Tallow Hill in Worcester has received £480,656 in National Lottery funding, providing vital support over the next five years. 

The funding will help the charity secure essential roles and expand service delivery to enable them to continue to deliver the 'trauma-informed' elements of their work and further develop support and services.

The overall aim at St Paul's, which has been running for 46 years, is to ‘make Worcestershire a place where all forms of homelessness are rare, brief and non-recurrent’.

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Employing specialist skills and delivering 'bespoke interventions', the aim is to give people experiencing homelessness the opportunities and support they need to recover.

A spokesperson for the charity said: "Without this specialist provision, we are simply a revolving door of homelessness, and we would be unable to provide the support required to enable recovery and reintegration of beneficiaries back into the community from which they have become isolated."

The funding is from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK.

Funding will be used to secure essential roles within the charity and expand their therapeutic and holistic services, enabling them to continue to deliver their Trauma Informed Care delivery model and expand service provision.

This funding will secure the post of service manager, hostel and resettlement and part funds the chef and catering manager, enabling the continuation and development of their kitchen assistant training programme.

Annamarie Brant, fundraising manager at St Paul’s said: “Thanks to National Lottery players, this grant means that we can continue to provide essential services to people who are experiencing homelessness; services that support and enable recovery and reintegration into a community from which they have become isolated from. This will make a big difference to people’s lives.”

During the pandemic, in 2020 alone, The National Lottery Community Fund distributed almost £1 billion to charities and community organisations across the UK.