Salford’s Homelessness charity, Loaves and Fishes, has recently undergone a full refurbishment on their Skills for life centre.

The charities aim is to combat poverty in Salford, and they have successfully prevented 119 people from becoming homeless, with as many as 1,293 guests visiting within the last month.

The skills for life centre is open daily, providing useful sessions for homeless and vulnerable people daily focusing on different areas people may be struggling with.

Jonathan Billing’s, CEO of Loaves and Fishes, has worked in charities supporting homelessness for over 20 years.

“I have worked here for about a year, and was CEO of another homelessness charity for 20 years, I have been in this line of work for a while now”

The Skills for Life Centre recently had a refurbishment provided for by Morgan Sindall Construction to improve their facilities.

“It was tired looking, the bathroom and kitchen area was not fit for purpose, it’s nice to have it done now to such a high standard, it has made a massive difference.”

Salford Loaves & Fishes, Skills for Life Centre

“Morgan Sindall Construction got in touch with us, asked us to write a wish list of things they could assist with, they completely refurbished the centre which was really nice of them, they funded the project themselves”

“At the moment we have a full programme of training and activities”

Mondays are set for Arts and Craft,

Tuesdays provide Housing advice and support drop-ins run by Salford Council,

Wednesdays are the charities Employability day – solely focusing on supporting people into employment and training,

“We have a lot of diversity, people who come to us and English isn’t their first language, they struggle getting about their day to day lives, and using a computer”.

Thursday morning classes offer language training for people who don’t speak English as their first language, with Basic to advanced IT courses offered on a Thursday afternoon.

Salford Loaves & Fishes, Skills for Life Centre

“In homelessness prevention work its often said that people are three pay checks away from being homeless, what we have found from people we work with is that they have been just one pay check from becoming homeless, it takes just one thing to go wrong and you can end up on the streets”

“We have an aim to prevent 1000 people a year from becoming homeless”.

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