Charity Spotlight: The Cardinal Hume Centre

LandAid and its charity partner the Cardinal Hume Centre are marking 40 years of shared purpose and a future that still needs action.

Location

Cardinal Hume Centre, Arneway Street, Horseferry Road, London, UK

In 2026, LandAid and the Cardinal Hume Centre both mark 40 years of changing lives. For four decades, the Cardinal Hume Centre has supported young people, families and individuals facing poverty, homelessness and disadvantage, providing not only a safe place to live, but the practical support needed to build a more secure future. At LandAid we are proud to enable charities like the Cardinal Hume Centre to keep creating lasting impact in their communities

Looking back 40 years ago

In 1985, Sister Eileen O’Mahoney noticed increasing numbers of young people experiencing homelessness. Concerned about what would happen without support, she began exploring the idea of a separate project for young people. With Monsignor Pat O’Donoghue, known as POD, she identified the soon-to-be-vacated convent on Arneway Street as a potential home. POD approached Cardinal Basil Hume, who supported the idea and asked religious orders across the diocese to help. In 1986, Sister Maria Parcher opened the family day centre at the new Cardinal Hume Centre. Today, the Cardinal Hume Centre is doing just what the sisters envisaged 40 years ago, but on a larger scale, with the help from organisations like LandAid”.

LandAid was founded 40 years ago with a similar belief: that the property industry has a unique ability and responsibility to help tackle youth homelessness. Together, these two organisations demonstrate what happens when specialist frontline support is matched with the collective power of an industry willing to act.

But anniversaries are also an opportunity to ask: what more can we achieve together over the next 40 years?

About the Cardinal Hume Centre

The Cardinal Hume Centre works alongside young people, children and families experiencing homelessness and poverty. Their work aims to prevent homelessness wherever possible, reduce its impact when it cannot be prevented, and reduce the risk of repeat homelessness by giving people the support they need to create lasting change.

Through holistic, person-centred support, the Centre helps people to overcome immediate challenges while building the foundations for long-term stability.

For young people and families experiencing homelessness, the impact goes far beyond the loss of a home. It can mean instability, disrupted work or education, reduced confidence and fewer routes into work or community life. That is why the Centre focuses on four areas that are critical to helping them move forward.

LandAid helps make this possible, connecting the property industry with organisations delivering support to young people and families facing homelessness, directing funding where it can have the greatest impact and creating opportunities for businesses to contribute their skills, expertise and networks.

What LandAid funding is making possible

The partnership between LandAid and the Cardinal Hume Centre is helping turn funding into practical, lasting change for young people facing homelessness. Across five grants totalling £174,228, LandAid support is strengthening both the Centre’s accommodation and the tailored services that help young people build confidence, develop skills and move towards independence.

Through a £30,000 StreetSmart 2024 grant, 46 young people with complex needs received tailored support spanning life skills, housing, welfare, employment and wellbeing, with the programme generating an estimated £1 million in social value. A further £67,228 funded improvements to the Centre’s high-support hostel, refurbishing bedrooms and communal spaces for 32 young residents. Importantly, young people helped shape those improvements themselves, ensuring the spaces better reflected what they needed.

LandAid is also helping the Centre expand its employability work. A £25,000 StreetSmart 2025 grant is supporting 30 young people through tailored careers advice, training, mentoring and help into education, employment and apprenticeships. Alongside this, £30,000 from LandAid’s Employability Fund will support more than 60 young people through one-to-one coaching, accredited training, employer insight days and work experience, while a further £22,000 from StreetSmart is extending the Centre’s Unlocking Potential programme to young people outside its supported accommodation.

Together, these grants are helping the Cardinal Hume Centre respond to young people’s immediate needs while also creating opportunities for the future. It is a partnership focused not only on helping young people through crisis, but on giving them the skills, confidence and stability to build a life beyond homelessness.

Madani's story

Originally from Chad, Madani had to flee on his own at just 14 years old because of political unrest.

‘I was not safe there, so I had to leave and try to find a better life,’ he says.

When he arrived at LandAid funded the Cardinal Hume Centre, things began to change.

‘When I first came to the hostel I felt like I was safe,’ he says.

With that stability in place, Madani began to focus on finding work. He took English language classes at the Centre and worked with their employment and learning team to prepare for his first job interview.

‘I really wanted to get a job, but I needed help to write my application and practise interview questions,’ he says. ‘The team helped me in every way they could to make sure I was ready.’

He took part in employability sessions, built his confidence, and prepared for his first interview. The Centre also supported him with a voucher to buy a suit.

‘I felt really smart and confident wearing it,’ he says. ‘When I turned up for my interview, they said I looked professional and ready for the job. That felt really good to hear.’

Madani began working part-time at the M&M Store, where he developed a wide range of skills. The Centre’s housing team also supported Madani to live independently. And around the same time, he moved into his own home. In February 2026, Madani returned to the Centre ready to take the next step in his career, taking part in more training.

I like to challenge myself,’ he says. ‘Every day I do something new and it makes me feel more confident.’

The experience paid off. Shortly after, Madani was offered a job, which he accepted.

I like to work with people and share ideas,’ he explains. ‘Working in hospitality makes me more confident, gives me new skills and experience. I want to be useful for the team.’

Madani’s journey shows how the right support at the right time can create the foundation for something more, stability and independence.

What LandAid’s support means to the Cardinal Hume Centre

“Since 2023, the number of clients we work with has increased from around 1,300 to more than 1,500, and that number is still growing. Youth homelessness is often hidden. Homelessness is not just rough sleeping. You can’t see that a young person who has left home because it is not safe and is now sleeping on a different friend’s sofa each night because they have nowhere else to go needs help. Or the 18 year old who has just left care for temporary accommodation who needs some stability. And in Westminster alone, nearly 4,000 children are living in temporary accommodation. That is the equivalent to 133 classrooms full of children who do not have a stable home. If we want to stop homelessness shaping young people’s lives, we need to act earlier, and partnerships like ours with LandAid help make that possible.

“LandAid has been part of that work since 2019. We share a commitment to be there for young people experiencing homelessness, and their funding has strengthened different parts of the Centre’s work, from improvements to our hostel to support for our employment and learning team. That has helped us reach more young people and give them practical help when they need it.’

“Forty years on, we believe services like ours are vital to breaking the cycle of homelessness; supporting children and young people today to prevent homelessness tomorrow. We’re grateful to partners like LandAid who are helping us meet that challenge, and we would encourage other organisations that share our values to get in touch and explore how we can work together.”

Aimee Kinniburgh, Corporate Partnerships Manager at the Cardinal Hume Centre

The role of the property sector: to end youth homelessness, everyone has to play their part.

Ending youth homelessness takes more than funding alone. It takes the expertise, influence and practical support of an industry that can make a difference.

Through LandAid, organisations across the property sector can help ensure charities like the Cardinal Hume Centre have access not only to vital funding, but also to the skills, connections and opportunities that can help young people move forward. That could mean offering work experience, mentoring a young person taking their first steps into employment, providing pro bono professional expertise, or using your networks to present opportunities that might otherwise not exist.

What could your organisation contribute?

Offer meaningful work experience or employment opportunities
Share professional expertise through pro bono support
Mentor a young person as they build confidence and start their career
Use your networks and influence to create new opportunities
Support LandAid so we can continue directing funding and sector expertise where it can have the greatest impact

To find out more about how to meaningfully donate your time, expertise or resources, contact LandAid’s Head of Strategic Programmes at gareth.pettit@landaid.org

Forty years ago, LandAid and the Cardinal Hume Centre began with a shared belief that young people deserve better futures. Four decades on, thousands of lives show what is possible when we act on that belief. Now, the challenge is to keep opening doors for the young people who need them most.

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