Communities Fund has provided £755 of match funding
Helping Hands Community Outreach Project
Craigavon, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
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Aim
Wraparound support service for those in need within our local community through services such as furniture, food, clothing, advice and more.
Helping Hands work within the wider Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon Council area. We provide a holistic service for beneficiaries from furniture provision to counselling services. Our services have been making a huge difference in the lives of many people within our local community for over 17 years.
There is no one particular need that we are addressing as an organisation. We have developed a range of services to provide a holistic support system and enable us to support as many people as possible, through areas such as; furniture/food/clothing provision, emergency heating, counselling, befriending, mentoring, CV preparation, budgeting advice, training (through operational café/workshop), and volunteering opportunities.
Our goal is to journey with people regardless of the challenges that they are facing.
If someone requires a piece of furniture then we will support them with that (sometimes they only need support in this way), however, often the reason they need practical support is due to other challenges. Therefore, we will then offer any of our other services as wraparound support should they need it for example budgeting advice so they will be able to manage their household income and save for items of furniture they need in the future.
We want to give people a hand up rather than a hand out.
Furthermore, we have recently purchased and renovated two properties in the local area which are now providing emergency housing for those in need. This has been in response to the rising homeless crisis within the area over the last few years and unfortunately one that is predicted to get even worse. Those accessing housing are also offered all of our other support services where required.
In 2025 we gave out 1488 items of practical support including; mattresses, sofas, toys etc. This directly reached 2228 individuals across 557 households. Our counselling services provided 154 sessions to those in need for a variety of issues. In addition our mediation services interacted with a wide number of people facing various challenges from relationship breakdown to sectarian and racial conflicts. Furthermore, our fun days and events reached around 2000 people and raised awareness of the work of Helping Hands. These figures are for those who we have supported directly, typically there are a minimum of 3 people supported indirectly for every person supported directly.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 29th October 2026 at 3:33pm