Starting with just a kettle, toaster and a typewriter the club has been transformed into a respite for the homeless from life on the streets.

Streetlytes run two other projects and feed close to 400 people every month. They provide support with a night drop-in centre, peer-support groups and help with finding housing. They provide mentoring and refer people on to drug rehabilitation programmes but perhaps most importantly are a constant presence in the lives of those they try to help and continue to look after them indefinitely.

When Robert Bartella, hotelier and owner of the Heritage Leisure Group, approached his solicitor, Graeme Atkinson of Wortley Redmayne Kershaw, to set up a charitable trust, Graeme recognised that the service offered by Essex Community Foundation offered the family a more proactive involvement and directed them there.

Some charitbale funds become domrant if they are unable to find people to manage them. Taurus Employment Development Ltd is an example. It was set up in 1982 to educate and train people who through their social or economic circumstances are in need and unable to gain employment, or wish to further their education.