This month, we spoke to Beth Salmon-Reid. As LandAid’s Senior Grants Office, Beth leads on the operational delivery of our grant programmes, key in ensuring LandAid makes the biggest imapact it can.
What brought you to LandAid in the first place?
I was drawn to LandAid because its mission of ending youth homelessness in the UK strongly aligns with my own professional and personal values and experiences. Before LandAid, I worked across youth-focused funders and charities, supporting organisations that empower young people and strengthen communities. I saw firsthand how resource limitations can hold back brilliant youth charities from scaling their impact. LandAid’s unique role in aligning the property sector’s resources with homelessness services felt like a powerful opportunity to make meaningful, lasting change. I wanted to bring my grant making and sector expertise to a place where strategic funding and collaboration truly improve outcomes for and empower young people.
What’s your role, and how do you help end youth homelessness?
As Senior Grants Officer at LandAid, I lead the operational delivery of our grant programmes. That means designing, developing and then managing our grants programmes from application through to award and evaluation to ensure our funding supports projects that deliver the best possible support for young people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. I act as the main point of contact for our charitable partners and am helping to refine our systems so that our funding processes are accessible, responsive and transparent. Through this work, I help ensure LandAid’s investment supports pathways into safe accommodation, skills, employment and long-term stability for young people.
What’s one project or moment that made you proud to work at LandAid?
Some of the most rewarding moments for me have been seeing the tangible difference our grant-making makes in communities across the UK. Whether that’s hearing from charity partners about their project successes or learning about a young person who has moved from unstable housing into a safe, secure future. It is a powerful reminder of why this work matters and what makes me proud to be part of LandAid’s mission.
What’s one challenge LandAid faces in this work that you think more people should know about?
A key challenge we face is the scale and complexity of youth homelessness. In the UK, thousands of young people become homeless every year, with many pushed into unsafe or insecure housing situations due to soaring rents, benefit reductions and insufficient support services. Despite strong partnerships and funding efforts, demand for specialist youth homelessness services continues to grow whilst available resources are reducing. This means that many expert and experienced charities impact is curtailed through no fault of their own.