Charitable staff from the Lancaster London Hotel have raised £6.5k for local homeless charity, West London Day Centre. On Friday 23rd September 2016, the Lancaster London team left behind the luxury of the hotel, gathered their sleeping bags and headed to Paddington to sleep out through the night.
During the Sleep Out, Community Ambassador Margaret Pollock and two representatives from the charity were joined by a host of Lancaster London staff and the hotel’s General Manager Sally Beck to spend the night outside St James Church in a move to raise money to support the charity’s good work in the community. With such dedicated and determined leaders, it is little wonder that the hotel has established itself as a key CSR player in the UK’s hospitality industry.
The following morning, the Lancaster London team were joined by a homeless man called Damian, who is currently being supported by the West London Day Centre’s Senior Project Workers. Damian showed his appreciation for the event by offering the participants orange juice.
All the money raised from the annual Sleep Out will go directly towards the charity’s Advice Service, which helps people to move off the streets and back into accommodation. Every day up to 100 homeless people visit the day centre to be provided with day to day support and meals, as well as access to a range of specialist services and an on-site Homeless Health Team.
The centre also runs longer-term development groups including employment support, as well as arts and music groups to build confidence, assist with social integration and support people in moving away from a street-based lifestyle.
The charity relies on vital support from fundraisers to continue to help between 20 to 30 homeless people off the streets and back into accommodation every month.
Lancaster London’s conscientious staff members have embarked on several projects over the last couple of years including undertaking regular visits to schools to talk about the different roles of the hotel’s honey bees, stuffing envelopes for COSMIC’s quarterly newsletters, painting houses for EAVES victims and holding numerous fundraising events.
