The charity’s work

St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity works to end homelessness in three key ways:

• Providing Funding
  Giving essential grants both directly to people experiencing homelessness and to some of the unique and essential projects supporting them into safe and secure homes.
• Supporting Frontline Workers
  Connecting the UK-wide community of over-worked and under-resourced sector support staff, as they work together tirelessly to alleviate homelessness.
• Advocating for change
  Using the insights we gain working with individuals, frontline workers and charities to build support for solutions to homelessness amongst the public, funders and policy-makers.

Providing Funding

Giving essential grants both directly to people experiencing homelessness and to some of the unique and essential projects supporting them into safe and secure homes.

Through the Vicar’s Relief Fund, we offer fast emergency grants to help people who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness to access safe accommodation or keep the accommodation they are in.

The Frontline Fund is a UK-wide initiative that helps people at especially high risk of experiencing homelessness, by funding unique and essential projects from organisations that offer individuals safe housing and support services. The fund is run by St Martin’s Charity and has given more than £1.5 million in three years to six projects across the UK.

We set up a Mental Health Fund in 2023 to support three organisations that provide access to mental health support for people experiencing homelessness, a provision that has been identified by frontline workers as difficult to access.

We have a long-standing funding relationship with our sister charity, The Connection at St Martins, who’s day centre offers a safe and welcoming place for people sleeping rough in the heart of London. The Connection offers a range of services to help people including practical help, such as meals, access to washing machines, PCs, phones and an address to have mail delivered. They also provide support, counselling and NHS services.

Supporting Frontline Workers

We believe that to prevent homelessness and to ensure that when it does occur, people have access to the best support possible, it is crucial that we support the frontline workers who deliver that support. One of the ways in which we support people experiencing or at risk of homelessness is by supporting the staff who are working with them day in, day out. The Frontline Network helps specialist frontline workers across the UK to access new funding, share expertise and find new and innovative ways of providing meaningful support for anyone experiencing homelessness.

We run a free Annual Frontline Worker Conference, which brings together a range of speakers from across the UK to share their knowledge, skills, experience and insights with our Frontline Network community and any other interested parties working in the homelessness sector.

We also have a Training Programme that supports those working with people who are experiencing homelessness to obtain new knowledge, skills, and experience. There’s the Training Fund where frontline staff can apply for up to £500 for an individual or £1,500 for a group training course, our Outsourced Training which offers a rolling schedule of high quality, taught courses across the year, available online for free, as well as subsidised places for Homeless Link’s CIH Level 3 Certificate accredited training, to support frontline worker skills development.

Influencing for change

We conduct a yearly Frontline Worker Survey of staff who work with people affected by homelessness in the UK. We use our survey results to inform the public and influence other funders about the realities and challenges of addressing homelessness. By listening to the voices of frontline workers, we can share their insights and recommendations quickly and authentically. This helps us advocate for more effective and compassionate solutions to end homelessness and help to make their voices heard. We also use this direct feedback about where needs are most urgent on the frontline to shape the support that we offer as a charity.

2023/24 headline figures

£1,780,676 given out in emergency grants

4,508 emergency grants awarded

6 new organisational grants (3 in our Mental Health Fund, 3 pilots for research and development)

907 Frontline Workers benefited from our Training Programme

71 events delivered by Frontline Network Partners