This year we are hoping to raise £70,000 towards the cost of running our workspace programme. The Workspace daily drop-in service is the entry point for homeless people into our employment, training and education services. The team helps them every step of the way, from helping with CVs, to building confidence, identifying aspirations and finding the right job or training. Ultimately they aim to help each individual to achieve their potential. Workspace is geared towards overcoming all the barriers faced by homeless people in accessing employment, alongside a comprehensive programme of housing referrals, benefits advice, mental health and substance misuse support. We offer training in relevant, practical skills that help people get qualifications. We address issues around personal development and life skills. Most importantly, we combine training with real-life work experience and links to employers, which has proven to be the most effective route out of homelessness. Joining Workspace represents a real commitment on the part of our clients to turning their lives around, and our mission is to help turn this commitment into a reality. Our services include:  Accredited training courses  Development of Individual Action Plans  Referrals to external training courses and education  Access to work trials in a range of sectors  Post-employment support In 2010/2011 we will deliver the following to our clients: • Help 500 clients with their CVs and job search • 250 personal Action plans • 50 clients into work trails • 100 clients into further education Finding a job is especially challenging for our clients in the current economic climate, and we have already experienced a sharp increase in demand for our services (20% increase in newly homeless clients and 40% increase in visits). Despite this, our Workspace service receives almost no funding from central government, and we are reliant on private donations to meet its costs. This year with your generous support will help hundreds homeless people benefit from a programme of activities focused on helping them off the streets and into training, work trials and employment. Meet Dixon, a refugee from Rwanda. We helped him find suitable accommodation, and when ready he registered with Workspace. A softly-spoken, bright, and amiable young man, Dickson was clearly a readily employable candidate, simply in need of the right opportunity. Trained as a Welder, Dickson was finding this niche market difficult to break into, and wanted to give his CV a Customer Service slant, so that he could apply for more readily accessible jobs in Retail. Just a matter of weeks later, we were lucky enough to be presented with just such an opportunity when one of our corporate partners, John Lewis Plc, offered us a supported work trial at their flagship store in Oxford Street. We had no reservations in mentioning this two week placement to Dickson, who jumped at the chance of gaining relevant work experience in Retail to add to his CV. John Lewis placed Dickson in their Menswear Dept and put together a carefully structured itinerary to make his experience as beneficial as possible. Dickson completed a 2-week work placement at John Lewis, and during his time there, he received three ‘customer appreciations’ (positive comments slips), and feedback from his colleagues was that he was ‘exceptional’. So impressed were they with Dickson, that after only 2 weeks, John Lewis offered him a full-time temporary contract on the shop floor. At time of writing, Dickson is still working at John Lewis and, whether at John Lewis or elsewhere, Dickson’s recent experience should help open doors to future employment opportunities. In any event, Workspace will continue to offer support to him and we all wish him well in his future endeavours!