This year, we have been blown away by the generosity of the community and local people. You have helped us vastly exceed our 25th Anniversary Fundraising Target, and your donations have better enabled us to cope with the increased demand for our services in this unprecedented year.

This Christmas, housing crisis and poverty is a reality for growing numbers of local people.

On-going causes of homelessness and housing crisis, such as domestic violence, familial breakdown or financial difficulty, are still the cause of suffering for so many. However, this year, more families and individuals than ever are facing the consequently of redundancy, furlough, isolation, ill-health and economic crisis.

This increased suffering if demonstrated in our enquiries throughout the year. For example, June 2020 saw a 94% increase compared to June 2019. A few months on, in September 2020, enquiries still remain 84% higher than in September 2019.

But, because of the fantastic support we have received, we believed it was time for our staff to get stuck in too! 

Between 25th November and Christmas Day, the staff of The Bridge will be completing the Staff Santathlon: a team effort to travel the equivalent distance of Lands End to John O'Groats!

That's one month to WALK, SWIM, CYCLE or RUN a total of 1,407 kilometres. 

And so, it seemed fitting to set our target of £1,407.

 That's just £1 for each kilometre, that together will make an enormous difference to the lives of the families and individuals in our services. 

To track our progress, we will be regularly updating our page with evidence of our efforts, via apps such as Strava, FitBit, Garmin and more.

We know that this year is incredibly tight for many of us. But, little or large, every donation you provide towards our Staff Santathlon will go towards changing the lives of local people facing homelessness, housing crisis and financial difficulty.

Find out more about our services, such as Family Mediation, Housing Advice, Tenancy Support and Food Parcels, on our website.

https://www.thebridge-eastmidlands.org.uk/