The House of St Barnabas Employment Academy does excellent work helping  homeless people learn employment skills. 

Individuals participate in a 12 week programme, learning skills within the house, the charity office, and with employment partners. Participants can work their way towards a City and Guilds qualification. After graduating, they are offered support from mentors for a further 12 months to help them gain and stay in employment. 

It costs £5,000 to put someone through the academy, so £3,000 would make a big difference towards changing someone’s life. 

The pandemic has, like with many things, somewhat derailed the process. Funds raised by the house through memberships and donations dropped, and participants were unable to take part in training programmes in lockdown. And if anything, the pandemic exposed how much need there is to support the most vulnerable people in our communities. 

With all this in mind, we decided that walking over 60km across three days in Jordan to help build up the Employment Academy’s coffers was an excellent idea.