Christmas 2020 Update

2020 has been our first year since opening and, like everyone else, Covid-19 has created unexpected challenges (although we have avoided any cases of the virus, thankfully!). We are very proud of what we have managed to achieve this year despite the Covid restrictions.

We successfully filled our flats and we helped some residents move on to permanent housing and full-time employment. We have run distance learning courses and veterans have obtained new qualifications. Plans with employers and training providers are at an advanced stage, so we can hit the ground running – with quality placements, courses and our own new social enterprise ventures for residents (including grounds maintenance and in our café) – as soon as life starts to return to normal next year.

We wish you a safe and Merry Christmas as we look forward hopefully to a more ‘normal’ life in 2021!

The ever-changing Covid rules meant that sadly we had to cancel planned community events, but we were still able to hold some Covid-secure business events, notably our well-attended open day for welfare officers.

And we are proud to have played our part in the pandemic emergency response earlier this year by providing shelter for homeless people, who were mainly long-term rough sleepers. Remarkably, our support team helped over 40 of them find permanent housing. Many had no family, IT skills, bank accounts, email addresses or benefits before they came to Entrain Space, many were also veterans.

We now know 2021 will present extra challenges around housing, employment and the economy. Entrain Space is ideally positioned to help veterans and Service-leavers who struggle with civilian life to meet these challenges. We provide high-quality places to live plus support and enterprise opportunity and, as the Prime Minister said when he visited us last year, we turn lives around. We need more Entrain Spaces and we are hoping we will get them!