The Co-operative Bank and Platform have worked with its trustee partners of historic special purpose entities to make funds of £75,000 available to charity partner Centrepoint.

Since the lockdown started at the end of March to help tackle the coronavirus outbreak in the UK, youth homelessness charity Centrepoint has seen a 36% increase in demand for their helpline; a vital service for homeless young people aged 16 – 25 to the end of April alone. That equates to almost 500 more young people than in the same period as last year looking for help and support. The Co-operative Bank has been a long standing supporter and has specifically funded the helpline which has been crucial for those that have needed to speak with Centrepoint during the pandemic.

Additional to the £1.4m that has been donated to Centrepoint since the charity partnership began in April 2017, The Bank has now allocated funds of £75,000 with the aim to support Centrepoint’s essential work to help young people in crisis as the Coronavirus pandemic has meant more demand for its services.

As part of the ongoing partnership with The Co-operative Bank and Platform, £5 is donated to Centrepoint for every new mortgage or mortgage product switch completed. As well as donations through the mortgage business, colleagues regularly hold fundraising events and make donations to support the important work Centrepoint does throughout the UK.

Di Gornall, director of fundraising at Centrepoint said: “We’re immensely grateful for the ongoing support from The Co-operative Bank. Coronavirus has perhaps been the biggest challenge Centrepoint has ever faced, and we’ve had to react nimbly and flexibly to ensure that we continue to support thousands of homeless young people across the UK.

“We have supported young people in their own tenancies and emergency accommodation with access to food parcels and hot meals and we must continue to support young people with basic provisions that they just cannot afford.

“The enforcement of visitor bans and self-isolation policies means that our young people are facing increased loneliness and anxiety. Our health and engagement team have adapted services to be able to offer desperately needed emotional support and phones, data packages, and increased engagement activities to continue their work.

“Our helpline team are working incredibly hard to answer the increased volume of calls from vulnerable young people to offer expert advice and support and the donations from The Bank will allow us to continue to deliver the most effective, practical, and emotional support to homeless young people.”

Andrew Bester, CEO at The Co-operative Bank, added: “We fully recognise the challenges that the current environment has brought to our charity partner Centrepoint and we are glad that we could allocate these funds which we hope will go some way to support vulnerable young people who vitally need to access the services Centrepoint provides.

“We will continue to look at other ways we can support Centrepoint at this time and to help them with their aim to end youth homelessness.”