Earlier this year I was asked to get involved with a social enterprise - HelpHomelessHeroes that aspired to becoming a Charity, in order to set out to support homeless people in the North of England. The Trustees felt that I would be able to use my commercial business experience to help deliver their aspirations and together with the two founders Carol and Michelle, we would all deliver charitable status.

6 months later we achieved our goal and became a Charity on the 27th July 2018. The whole process of getting there was a real eye opener. The Charity Commission fortunately don't just hand out charitable status without making you work for it and importantly prove that you are all fit and proper people, and that the organisation has genuine aims and constitutions. We spent hours answering the queries and providing information to support our application.

We are very proud to now be Charity number 1179371.

I am the sort of person who has always led from the front and I am heading up our first fundraising initiatives which have begun this month. I have worked in the Pub Industry for most of my life and am known to enjoy a pint or two!...It is therefore a significant challenge for me to 'Stay Sober for October'...but this is what I intend to do as I am determined to help other less fortunate than me.

I am aiming to raise £250.00 over the month, and am asking for your support through you sponsoring me to achieve this challenge.

This is just the start though and we now have to fundraise to move our Charity forward. Everybody within HHH is an unpaid volunteer - all the directors and trustee work for the Charity on a 'pro bono' basis - we don't take expenses either as this is our donation. There are no fancy offices or china tea sets and company cars - we are given a space free and a business address by another social enterprise in Manchester - this is our Head Office. We don't intend to change this lean way of working.

Already we are working to help the homeless people of the North of England. We have designed a 'Homeless Passport' and have worked with other organisations to develop the 'Triple H Programme' which is a structured process to identify individuals who are homeless or in danger of becoming so, and helping them to find shelter, clothing , food, medicines and then guide them back into main stream society by giving them back their status, identity and providing a permanent home, training, and full time work. We are already working to help people to achieve this and we are actively working with outreach groups and other organisations to build conduit relationships.

You may or may not know me personally - but you will all have seen the increasing amount of homeless people on our streets. There is also an increasing amount of ex-service personnel among them - and professional people who have been 'burnt out' my modern society. Believe me - we are the fortunate ones!

I can assure you that monies raised go straight towards helping these people. We also use the Homeless Passport to identify people so we know that only genuine homeless people receive our support. They have to be registered with us and we have all their background details so your donations will not be wasted or go to funding expensive shiny offices - they will go to helping real people rebuild their lives!....

I would like to thank you for reading this letter whether you decide to donate or not.......

Sincere Thanks!

Andy

Andy Mullin