Lord Mayor launches charity appeal supporting four Leeds based organisations

Each Lord Mayor chooses a Leeds based charity, close to their heart, to champion during their year of office. This year the Lord Mayor has taken this one step further, choosing to support four charities: Martin House Children’s Hospice, St George’s Crypt, St Anne’s Community Service and Simon on the Streets.

Throughout the year the Lord Mayor will work to support the four charities, with the aim of bringing the whole city together to raise awareness and funds through a range of events and activities.

Martin House Children’s Hospice provides family led care for babies, children and young people with life limiting conditions. The charity supports over 440 children and young children each year as well as bereavement support for over 160 families.

St George’s Crypt has been supporting homeless and vulnerable adults in Leeds since 1930, alongside meeting the basic needs of food, clothing and a safe space they also run residential alcohol and drug recovery programmes.

St Anne’s Community Service focuses on giving support to vulnerable people. They are the only open access centre in Leeds for those experiencing homelessness, in housing crisis or feeling domestic abuse, on average the centre supports 60 people every day.  Their aim is to provide opportunities to help people reach their true potential and continue to give people equitable chances.

Summarised in their slogan, Simon on the Streets is an organisation that seek to ‘provide hope for those without a voice’.  They deliver emotional and practical support for those living on the streets and offer specialist services to transform lives can change for the better.

The Lord Mayor of Leeds, Councillor Robert W Gettings MBE JP said: “I am really looking forward to supporting the vital work that all four charities do across Leeds throughout my term in office. The Lord Mayor’s charity appeal is a great opportunity for all of Leeds to get behind a great cause, and I would strongly encourage people to get involved in any way they can during the next year.

“Every penny raised this year will help support vital work taking place in communities across Leeds to either tackle homelessness or deliver outstanding care and support to children with life-shortening conditions.”