Edinburgh solicitors support Fresh Start in 2017

Cheque Handover to FreshStart

Solicitors and staff within our Edinburgh office nominated Fresh Start as their local charity partner for 2017. Last year the Edinburgh office supported Radio Forth Cash for Kids and raised £17,143.36.

Fresh Start was set up to help people who had previously been homeless furnish and decorate their houses but it has expanded to helping previously homeless people get their life back on track.

Each individual or family is given a starter pack which contains basic household items to get them started. It is quite often a struggle for homeless person to get a tenancy and then when they secured that tenancy furnishing and having all the basic household items was a further difficulty to the starter packs include linen, cutlery, plates, mugs, basic food items and cleaning products.

Image
Fresh Start warehouse filled with crockery

Quite often when people manage to get their tenancy, they are faced with a flat or house with bare walls and floors stripped back to the floor boards. So the charity can send out squads of volunteers who will decorate two rooms for the person. The person can pick their own colours and they have carpet.

Image
Fresh Start hit squad

The charity also provides cooking lessons and have recently set up a vocational training course so that people can learn essential life skills and hopefully go on to gain employment.

Jen McQuistan, Corporate Partnership Co-ordinator at Fresh Start, will be visiting our Edinburgh office on Wednesday 24th May to speak to all staff about how they can get involved and the difference they can make.

So far, our Edinburgh office will be helping Fresh Start put together their starter packs to help people get settled into their new homes. On top of this, our Edinburgh office will be fundraising throughout 2017, beginning with the Edinburgh Marathon on 27th-28th May.

Please visit Fresh Start for further information.  

To keep up to date with our charity fundraising, please see Edinburgh local news.