Cardinal Hume Centre

For more than 30 years, the Cardinal Hume Centre has helped people overcome poverty and the threat of homelessness. We work with individuals and families of all ages, from all backgrounds. We run a range of specialist services, providing advice and practical support to help people in need turn their lives around. The Benedictine ethos of our founder, Cardinal Basil Hume, underpins all that we do: we offer a non-judgmental, warm welcome to all those seeking our support. The Centre celebrates that everyone who comes over our threshold is a unique human being. We acknowledge that human need is complex and therefore our response should be multi-layered. We know what one size does not fit all and so our approach is to work with each client on a one-to-one basis wherever possible. The first question we ask is ‘what do you want to achieve?’ By taking this approach, we are able to move away from simply categorising someone as homeless, a single parent, unemployed, a migrant or asylum seeker, and tailor our services to meet a person’s specific and often complex needs. Our ultimate goal is to help people achieve greater resilience and wellbeing. Our work is targeted at supporting people to overcome the barriers they face in achieving this. Vision We strive towards a society where every individual has a safe place to live and the right to access the support and opportunities they need to fulfil their potential. Mission The Cardinal Hume Centre enables people to gain the skills they need to overcome poverty and homelessness. We focus on four areas; income, housing, education and skills, and legal status. The Centre gives homeless young people, families in need and local people support to realise their full potential. Values

With integrity, we strive to be true to our founding ethos and to living out our vision and mission; we are honest and we are accountable to our stakeholders. With respect, we seek to be non-judgemental, to listen, acknowledge each other's worth and to put people at the centre of our work. Through compassion, we will demonstrate our care for each individual who comes to the Centre in the quality and consistency of the services we offer to them. To promote inclusiveness, we reject social exclusion and welcome diversity; we offer our services regardless of racial origin, of religion or politics; we will not discriminate on the grounds of gender or sexual orientation. To encourage empowerment, we will provide holistic support to our clients in helping them to identify their needs and in making informed choices about their lives.