Crisis Wales member celebration

My last engagement of the day was in the fabulous Cinema and Co in Castle Street, where I was asked to speak at the Crisis member celebration and award certificates to the service users, recognising their work and progress.

Crisis is one of my Lord Mayor's charities. Their Skylight South Wales Service is helping people directly out of homelessness. People learn new skills, gain qualifications and improve their health and wellbeing in order to move in to work and accommodation.

The dedicated, experienced coaches work with people one-to-one to equip them with the skills they need to find and keep a home.

We cannot eradicate homelessness altogether, but we should be aiming to ensure that when an individual or a family finds themselves without a home, then that episode in their life must be brief and it must be a one-off.

Learning enhances motivation, builds confidence and self-esteem, supports the development of skills for work and life, improves health and wellbeing and is a catalyst for social engagement and integration. It is an important part of the process that helps put a homeless person back on their feet and I was privileged to meet many of those benefitting from this work today.