What a wonderful start to the day.
Had a fantastic phone call from a Chris Middleton.
He told me that he had made a donation of £1200 via our PayPal account.
Isn’t that marvellous….
However there is a story to this donation, Chris Middleton was responsible for a song called It will be Freezing this Christmas. It was banned which helped the song to become a no 1 hit last year. Look it up on Google. I’ll try to add the link.
From the profits he is helping charities and asked for nominations.
Sheila Jennings put our Charity forward, thank you Sheila.
We were lucky enough to be chosen.

THANK YOU CHRIS MIDDLETON
THANK YOU SHEILA

We are delighted to report that we have started to build a partnership with Bradbeers Rental & Sales.

Local family owned business Bradbeers has a division which provides furniture packs for rent for commercial & residential lets.

When the furniture is returned it may have minor scuffs on it or the style may have gone out of vogue so they have agreed that New Life Domestic can have first refusal of these items, free of charge.

In addition, that have kindly agreed to store some of the items, which is a massive help – the charity has limited storage which means on many occasions we have to decline furniture, so the offer from Bradbeers is a great relief.

Nick from Bradbeers Rental & Sales kindly delivered 3 double bed based to us last Friday which we desperately needed so a massive thank you to Nick.

We are seeing an increase in the number of cases referred to us for help with funding for carpeting in social housing.

Social Landlords standard procedure is to remove all carpeting at the end of the tenancy and it is the responsibility of the new tenant to get new carpets fitted.

We had a case just this week, where the delivery of our furniture pack was delayed because a family allocated a flat by a Housing Association, was refused access because the Housing Association insisted new carpeting needed to be fitted before they could move in. So this family is now blocking a place at the Refuge, which is desperately needed by others, through no fault of their own and can’t move forward.

People on low income, which many of our families are, do not have the savings needed to pay the upfront costs of buying and installing carpets.

When we have funds available we will gladly help out with the cost, but unfortunately this is not always the case and sadly we are not always able to assist financially.

Through our partnership with South Coast Floors we get discounted rates which we are glad to share with our families but if there is no funding available to help pay for new carpets families have to take out a loan, even if they can get a loan which many don’t qualify for, putting them into debt at a time when they are trying to rebuild their lives.

If Social Landlords are demanding that tenants install carpeting then surely the landlord should take some responsibility in helping to fund this. In Wales they have passed regulations that all new social lets must come with flooring included but this has not been expanded across to England & Scotland.

The last couple of months have been busy for the charity with a total of 8 families supported to move into their new homes. Most of these families needed a full furniture package including carpeting.

One case wrote:

“Thank you, after everything we’ve been through this is the first day I’ve not sat and cried from stress. Thank you more than you will ever know.”

No one should be without a bed to sleep on, a cooker to cook on, or a sofa to sit on. We work tirelessly with the families we support to make this vision a reality.

We were delighted to be able to support three families move into their new homes in March by providing full furniture packages, all free of charge.

With many Local Authorities closing their crisis support schemes, due to budget cuts, its now even more critical that charities like New Life Domestic are able to step in and provide the support families in crisis so desperately need.

Living in Furniture Poverty has a devastating impact on people’s physical and mental health which is why the charity is so grateful for the support and help it gets from its supporters and followers, allowing us to help those in greatest need.

New Life Domestic were delighted to receive a £1000 cheque from Misselbrook Trust this month.

The Trust, a registered charity, based in Eastleigh, allocates grants to charities and organisations which have a material affect within Hampshire.

One of our Volunteers Annie Stelling was instrumental in instigating the grant application, so a big thanks to Annie for her help.

The money will be used to purchase sundry items for the families New Life Domestic supports.

Friday 7th March, one of our Trustees Dee O’Neill, attended a presentation at Xela Group’s Head Office in Eastleigh, to receive a cheque for £500 for New Life Domestic

The company celebrated 15 years in business and as a thank you to the community they donated £500 to 15 local charities, New Life Domestic being one. Speaking with the owners Phillip & Gareth they were inundated with applications and it was a difficult decision to condense it down to the final 15, so we were super proud to have been chosen.

This money will go direct to help the families we support.

A huge thanks to Gareth & Philip at Xela Group’s and we wish them many more years of success.

We were delighted to be chosen as one of the charities to receive a grant from the Morrisons Foundation. The Foundation offers grants to registered charities making a positive difference in local communities.

The money received will be used to purchase white goods and flooring for the families we support.

A recent report uncovered the vast scale of furniture poverty across the country, a staggering number of people are living without the essential furniture items such as a cooker, a fridge or a bed.

A huge thank you to Morrisons for their donations which will make a huge difference to the families who are starting out on their new life journey after escaping domestic.

We are holding our Annual General Meeting on the 17th February.

This again will be at the Master Builder at 7.00 and the general public is invited.

There will be a Buffet so please if you want to attend please let us know so that the catering can be arranged.

Thank you.

January was a busy period for the charity with 7 new cases referred to us. All our volunteers and supporters rallied together to collect all the necessary furniture and sundries needed by these families and we were able to quickly make these families new accommodate become a new comfortable home.

“Thank you so much for everything you’ve done to help set us up in the new house. I am so grateful”

Case No. 6