NOAH, a charity that supports homeless and other vulnerable people in one of the most deprived areas of the country, has been awarded a grant of £45,000

NOAH Enterprise (New Opportunities and Horizons) runs an award winning Welfare Centre in Luton. The charity finds accommodation for those who are homeless, provides hot meals, health services, washing facilities and specialist advice on key topics such as immigration and finance.

The charity runs an Outreach Team, Resettlement Service, Emergency Winter Shelter, a Social Enterprise, and the Academy training centre, aiming to provide a truly holistic pathway to recovery for its growing number of clients, who have doubled in number in the last 12 months.

This grant will fund a Welfare Support Worker who will support more than 800 clients annually. The Centre, which is open 365 days a year, accepted 486 new referrals to its Welfare Support service last year alone.

The Worker will  help clients address the underlying problems in their lives, develop individual support plans to help find accommodation, manage money and deal with physical and mental health needs, including addiction.

Jim O’Connor MBE, Chief Executive of NOAH, said:

We are very grateful to Bedfordshire Freemasons for their generous grant which will help us to help hundreds of the most vulnerable people in the county. Our services have never been needed so much as they are right now

John Carter of Bedfordshire Freemasons, said:

“We are very pleased to be able to help NOAH, who do really excellent work with some of the most vulnerable people in the county.”