Youth homeless charity receives massive donation from Brighton business

Brighton based youth homelessness charity, The Clock Tower Sanctuary, receives a massive donation of £92,000 from RiverStone Management Limited, part of the insurance and reinsurance operations of Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited.

The local charity, which receives no statutory funding to run its service, was astounded to receive a phone call from RiverStone’s HR Manager to say their employees had nominated The Clock Tower Sanctuary to receive this very generous donation.

The Clock Tower Sanctuary is Brighton’s only drop-in service specifically for homeless 16 – 25 year olds. The charity provides a welcoming and safe space and works to prevent young people from a life on the streets. However the charity has been struggling to support the growing need for the service due to the small size of its current premises located in central Brighton.

Natalia Borg, Development Manager at The Clock Tower Sanctuary, said: “Brighton and Hove is now home to the UK’s second largest homeless population. Every day it’s a challenge to negotiate the space to ensure we can help all the vulnerable young people who seek our support. This unbelievable donation means we will be able to expand, doubling the space of the day centre. We are so grateful to everyone at RiverStone – we still can’t quite believe it!”

RiverStone said it is an important part of its culture to give back to the local community and they were delighted to be able to make such a donation. Homelessness is an issue that their employees are understandably concerned about and they are thrilled that the donation will make such a crucial impact.

RiverStone will also be supporting charities local to their Darlington and London offices with donations of £11,000 and £36,000 respectively.

The Clock Tower Sanctuary’s mission is to prevent vulnerable young people from becoming part of the long-term homeless population by intervening early with young people to help prevent problems spiralling out of control.

In 2015 they supported 167 individuals with 63 new clients accessing services for the first time. About half of these were rough sleeping or in temporary accommodation, with the rest either in hostels or ‘sofa-surfing’.

The RiverStone Group is part of the insurance and reinsurance operations of Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited (“Fairfax”), a Canadian financial services group based in Toronto.