A national charity for homeless young people was relaunched with a new name. Depaul UK, which was previously Depaul Trust, is the largest youth homelessness charity in the UK, providing more than 100,000 bed nights each year.
The Charity was started in London in 1989 and its new name represents its growth and development over the past 20 years. It hopes to be instrumental in shaping a national strategy to prevent youth homelessness.
Paul Marriott, Chief Executive of Depaul UK, said:
"Depaul UK is updating its name now that it has expanded beyond its London focused beginnings and is now based at various locations around the UK.
"With over 30 varied projects run directly by Depaul UK and 50 local Nightstop schemes affiliated to the organisation, it is now the UK's largest youth homelessness charity.
"We are passionate about making a real and lasting difference to young people around the UK and our new name is re-iterating our new direction and our expanded reach.
"Depaul UK is also proud to be part of Depaul International, a group of five charities committed to tackling homelessness on a global scale.
"Changing to Depaul UK ensures that we fit seamlessly into this family and can continue to grow the UK arm of Depaul International."
January also saw the release of Delivering Lasting Change for Social Impact, which outlines six corporate goals for the next five years. The Charity believes these are essential to tackle the issues behind youth homelessness.
These goals are to:
Depaul UK plans to focus on essential community-based work by strengthening young people's engagement within their community, as well as aiming to reduce the number of young people locked up by considering other methods to reduce youth offending. In 2007, the Charity worked with more than 1,200 young offenders across England, offering accommodation advice and mentoring inside prison, as well as through the gate resettlement and mentoring support.
Depaul UK has helped over 45,000 young people through six complimentary areas of work:
Depaul International, a worldwide group of charities that aims to tackle homelessness on a global scale, was formed in 2004. It now has charities in Ireland, Slovakia, Ukraine and the US.
For more information - www.depauluk.org.
