Glee Star Cory Monteith Visits Centre Supporting Homeless Young People in London
By Virgin Unite, PRNEMonday, June 27, 2011
LONDON, June 28, 2011 -
Then Meets the six Winning
‘Special Youth
Ambassadors‘at The Roof Gardens in
Kensington to Share Ideas of how They Will Help Raise Awareness of
At-risk and Homeless Young People
Glee star and Virgin Unite ambassador Cory Monteith, today
visited Foyer Centre in London to meet with young people being
supported by the charity, which provides affordable and safe
accommodation linked to employment, training opportunities and a
range of other services.
Cory Monteith spent time touring the centre, which provides safe
accommodation for young people, to see the facilities that range
from a training room with computers to allow for job searches to
literacy and numeracy lessons to a canteen that offers meals and
cooking lessons. Joined by a small group of residents who
shared their stories and hopes for the future, Cory said, “It was
great to meet such an inspiring group of young people. I’m
impressed at how positive the group is despite facing so many
challenges. They’re keen to move forward and gain the necessary
skills needed to get their lives back on track.”
Kereice, who has been living at the Foyer centre for 18 months,
said “I knew I wanted to get involved with event management and
volunteered to get the skills needed and now feel more confident
and now have a part time post with the Haze Young people’s centre.
Cory’s words of encouragement have given us all a massive boost.
It’s been a dream come true.”
Cory then headed over to The Roof Gardens’ Babylon Restaurant in
Kensington, to join the six winning ’special youth ambassadors’
chosen from the UK search launched by Virgin Unite and Cory at the
beginning of June. Chosen for their inspirational essays about the
importance of volunteering, they shared ideas of how they intend to
raise awareness of youth homelessness, over three months for three
fantastic charities - Albert Kennedy Trust, Depaul UK and the Foyer
Federation. Cory also spent time with key workers from the three
charities to discover what their needs and wants are from the
winning ambassadors who as members of the public will raise
awareness of what they learn from visiting the charities and
spending time with the young people they support.
Special youth ambassador Zoe Chanas said, “Today has been
amazing! Meeting Cory was beyond cool and I’m excited about using
social media to let people know about the issues and how they can
get involved.”
Jean Oelwang, CEO, Virgin Unite, said, “We’re extremely lucky to
have such a dedicated ambassador in Cory. He is
inspiring his thousands of fans to volunteer, whilst raising
awareness of at-risk and homeless young people here in the UK. We
are so grateful that Cory took the time to listen and learn from
some wonderful young people in the UK and look forward to having
him work with these six Youth Ambassadors to ensure that we never
accept young people having to live on the streets.”
Notes to Editor:
About Virgin Unite:
Virgin Unite is the non-profit foundation of the Virgin Group.
We unite people to tackle tough social and environmental problems
in an entrepreneurial way. Our aim is to help revolutionize the way
business, governments and the social sector work together - driving
business as a force for good. This is based on the belief that this
is the only way we can tackle the scale and urgency of the
challenges facing the world today. Virgin Unite’s overheads are
covered by Sir Richard Branson and the Virgin Group, meaning that
100% of additional donations received go direct to the frontline
where they are needed most. For more information please visit
Follow us on Twitter
Join the movement on Facebook
About The Albert Kennedy Trust:
The mission of AKT is to ensure that all lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender young people are able to live in accepting,
supportive and caring homes, by providing a range of services to
meet the individual needs of those who would otherwise be homeless
or living in a hostile environment. They aim to do this by
providing appropriate homes through supported lodgings, fostering
and other specialist housing schemes, enabling young people to
manage independent living successfully and improving attitudes
within society towards lesbian, gay and bisexual young
people. For more information please visit:
About Depaul UK
Depaul UK is the largest youth homelessness charity in the UK.
It provides and supports 145,000 bed-nights a year to homeless,
disadvantaged and vulnerable young people and has helped more than
50,000 people since it was founded in 1989. Depaul UK also
works to prevent young people from becoming homeless by rebuilding
family relationships and providing young people with opportunities
to fulfil their potential through education, community-based
volunteering, training and employment.
Please see
more information
About The Foyer Federation:
The Foyer Federation helps to transform the circumstances of
young people who have faced barriers in their lives. We work
with young people to create new approaches to developing the skills
and resources they need to thrive. Their campaigns and
initiatives are led through a network of 140 accredited learning
and accommodation centres known as ‘Foyers’. These Foyers
provide up to 10,000 16-25 year olds per year with mutually agreed,
tailored-made programmes which give young people access to housing,
learning, personal development, training and employment
opportunities in line with their needs and goals. For more
information please visit:
Security on the day was provided free of charge by Nice and
Secure, a professional, contemporary and comprehensive approach
to security.
Jodie Dalmeda, Virgin Unite, +44(0)203-126-3967,
jodie.dalmeda at virginunite.co.uk; Ellie Springett, Virgin Unite, +44(0)203-126-3977, ellie.springett at virginunite.co.uk
Tags: June 28, London, United Kingdom, Virgin Unite
