Charity celebrates success with fundraising ball

GLITZ and glamour were the order of the day, when local charity, Hollywell Housing Trust, celebrated their third birthday and thanked their supporters by throwing a festive fundraising ball.

The ball, held at Rockbeare Manor, just outside Exeter, came at the end of what has been a mammoth year for the Trust, which finds homes for vulnerable adults with learning disabilities and autism, in privately rented accommodation throughout Devon and Cornwall. Hollywell sources suitable property and then provides the vulnerable person with the housing and tenancy support they need to live independently.

Executive Officer, Katie Sherjan, said: “This year has been a fantastic year for Hollywell, we have provided 44 vulnerable people across Devon and Cornwall with a new home and with our support they are thriving living independently in the community.”

Katie, who was also the Express & Echo’s Charity Champion for 2017, set up the charity in 2014 to address the serious lack of options for vulnerable people to live independently within the private rented sector. Katie wanted to set up a service to support these individuals to secure their own home, whilst giving them the housing support they need to maintain their tenancy.

The charity has gone from strength-to-strength since then, and the ball has come at a time when, according to Katie: ‘An ever increasing number of vulnerable people are stuck in residential care, hospitals and living with elderly relatives when they don’t need to be – there is simply no other option for them. By providing safe, supported access to the private rented sector this enables people to move on to more suitable, independent living”.

Hollywell’s Charity Auction held on the night, and presided over by Simon Bowkett, Chief Executive of Exeter’s CoLab, raised a staggering £1000, all of which is being ploughed back in to Hollywell Housing Trust, to help it to house even more people in 2018. Prizes included tickets to Exeter City Football Club and dinner for eight cooked by Rockbeare Manor’s own Head Chef.