SPITALFIELDS CRYPT TRUST
Founded in 1965, Spitalfields Crypt Trust helps people who are facing homelessness and drug and alcohol addictions to transform their lives. Based in the heart of Shoreditch, East London, the charity supports the community with a number of programmes which include:
• A Drop-In Service for the homeless providing food and drink, toiletries and clothes. Homeless people can seek advice on and connection to relevant shelters, organisations and agencies to meet specific needs and a wide variety of health services.
• Residential Supported Housing offers safe and reliable housing, allowing people to begin a journey of reintegration into the community and recovery. Addressing both physical and emotional wellbeing, the charity provides counselling and ways to manage legal, debt and family issues. This programme has two phases.
• A Training and Development Centre provides free courses allowing students to acquire valuable new life skills or job training. The dedicated specialist addiction team apply themselves to determining an individual’s interests, capabilities and needs to provide not just new skills but also the self-esteem to apply them constructively.
• ‘Choices’ is a peer-led initiative that helps individuals at the later stage of rehabilitation to avoid relapse as they embark on their re-entry into the wider community and the workplace. Structured around weekly social activities, this end-stage support from the charity is as crucial as the earlier stages to get individuals back onto constructive paths for their future lives.
The work of the Spitalfields Crypt Trust provides a complete pathway for people with alcohol and drug addiction and with complex needs. The Drop-In Service sees over 500 homeless people a year, serving around 6,000 meals at the charity’s East London premises. Success rates are high with 50% of people in first-stage supported housing still in abstinent recovery a year after entering the programme and 84% for those in the second-stage of the programme.
Find out more about Spitalfields Crypt Trust.