Strong ethics are at the heart of my philosophy. I believe in ‘doing well by doing good’ and I am here to inspire other people to do the same.

I have recently become an Ambassador for The Carbon Trust’s ‘Best Advice Campaign’ - a drive to persuade British businesses to stop wasting £3bn of energy every year. The Carbon Survey, available free of charge to all businesses that spend between £50,000 and £3 million on energy each year, provides the services of an energy expert on site and a tailored energy-saving action plan. It typically identifies potential savings on energy costs of between 20% and 30%. Find out more at www.carbontrust.co.uk

At the end of 2009 – I had the honour of meeting some truly inspirational and ethical individuals down in Bristol – either volunteers working with people to get their lives back on track – or indeed individuals who had turned their lives around after a period of homelessness or substance abuse. Channel 4 – as part of their ‘Secret Millionaire’ series, sent me to the streets of the UK to experience poverty and abuse first hand – and I was horrified at what I saw. It was then that I vowed to do all I could to help, and donated considerable amounts to the following 3 charities :-

The Wildgoose Café

The Wildgoose Café is a drop-in centre for people with addictions who are likely to have no home of their own.  The drop in centre build relationships with everyone on a personal basis – and all individuals are judged on their own merits.  Everyone is seen as individuals, and every effort is made to help them with what they want to achieve.  This could be helping with a detox or supporting them to an assessment or it may just be they are not ready to move forward and the group are then happy to be alongside them to listen to them and provide meals. The Life Recovery group is to help people move forward within their lives and to give their families a better understanding of addiction.  Visiting people in hospital continues the good relationship they have built with them and it is probable they would not get other visits.  Some clients just want help getting into a dry house of accommodation so we are happy to help in any way we can.   At the end of last year, they began to go into schools to talk about the consequences of drinking alcohol and taking drugs at a young age.  This programme has become very successful and they are now being asked back on a regular basis to help give a better understanding on how youngsters can slip into addiction, homelessness and sometime prostitution.

One25

One25 has been working for nearly 15 years in Bristol, reaching out to women trapped in street sex work and helping them to break free and build new lives away from violence, poverty and addiction. The women One25 support are among the city's poorest and most vulnerable individuals.  Most are homeless and malnourished and 99% are addicted to drugs and/or alcohol: because of this basic safety and health are neglected. One25 sees women who are deeply traumatised; first from childhood abuse and then in the violence of their adult lives on the streets. Many have friends who have tragically died young as a result of this lifestyle, yet without the charity’s long-term, holistic support it is extremely difficult for them to escape.
One25 are dedicated to supporting this vulnerable group in all their areas of need and offer 4 key services: a night outreach program, a drop-in centre, one-to-one casework and a mother and baby home called Naomi House. In 2009, One25 intensively supported 77 women of whom: 29 women exited street sex-work; 48 accessed drug treatment (including 31 who stopped using drugs/alcohol altogether); all 77 accessed healthcare; 30 were securely housed; 14 kept their children safely in their care and 32 started training, education or employment.  One25 are always in need of more funding and assistance.  If you would like to help them contact Helen on helen@one25.org.uk

Teenage Parents Project

The Teenage Parents Project provides practical, emotional and mentoring support for teenage parents and their children in the BS13 area raising awareness of aspirations through education.
 
We work with teen parents aged between 16 and 25 and their children, and help by providing premises and services specifically for them. AThe centre is kept clean to a high standard, and is warm, fresh and welcoming to all families.  
 
We offer pre-school education within our Crèche and have NVQ Level 2+3 Child Development Workers in place who makes available a range of activities for the age and stage of the children’s development, ensuring they have a positive time and develop new skills which are transferable when they attend mainstream Nursery, making it an outstanding experience for them all.  This allows the parents to be confident their children are being looked after – whilst we assist them with all matters from self-esteem and job coaching to domestic abuse and bereavement counselling.
 
We offer teen parents weekly Open Access Sessions facilitated by project workers, for them to meet with others in similar situations and build support net-works. Within these group settings they are encouraged to devise their own quarterly programme, with the aim of creating ownership.