Kindness Homeless Street Team raised £45,000 with the Aviva Community Fund – helping to open a new café that offers food and support in a safe, warm environment.

Laura McSorley – a Customer Team Manager at Aviva – started Kindness in December 2019. Laura saw the challenges facing vulnerable people in the place she lives and works and knew she wanted to help. She and a small group of friends and family began to hand out sandwiches and supplies to homeless people out of the boot of a car. Now, the charity has over 70 regular volunteers, including Aviva colleagues, who give up to 300 people a week a meal and a listening ear.

And that’s not all. Laura and her team pick up unwanted furniture for people being housed without possessions to encourage them to stay home and safe. They help those who need it get in touch with charities to support with job and housing applications. They run a soup kitchen two nights a week, collect food that would otherwise go to waste to turn into tasty meals, and open a drop-in foodbank four days a week where people can receive clothing supplies and food parcels. 

But what the charity really wanted was a community café. They didn’t want people to queue in the cold and rain for food while also fostering community engagement and addressing isolation.  So, Laura bought Kindness to the Aviva Community Fund platform to raise much-needed funds. And it was a success. Using the £45,000 raised, the Kindness Café came to life. It’s been kitted out to offer a hot meal and some much-needed warmth, as well as a listening ear for Laura’s local community. 

As well as providing food every day, volunteers at the café teach basic low-cost cooking skills to help people budget their money and provide nutritional meals for themselves and their families.  And recently, Aviva Glasgow colleagues served up a three-course lunch for the elderly. The experience helped them better understand issues facing vulnerable customers and they said that the smile on people’s faces made it feel really worthwhile.  

Laura shared, “We had three people (who’d previously used our services) in a week that visited us at the soup kitchen. One had a diploma from university, one had a house and progressed in their job, and another had just obtained a full-time tenancy for his property. That was three people in a week that came back to say, ‘This is the difference you helped us to make’.”

Laura and her volunteers are dedicated to helping people experience kindness and grow in their lives.

Does your cause support financial wellbeing or climate action? Apply to the Aviva Community Fund today and you could get your donations doubled.

Funding is available for organisations looking to raise up to £50,000 and eligible causes can apply at any time.