We are very proud to announce that our first ever Charity of the Year is local organisation Steps to Hope!

Steps to Hope is a non-profit Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation, working care for the homeless and those suffering with addiction in Edinburgh. The charity aims to engage with the most vulnerable to share the solution to addiction and to support them into, and through, the process of recovery.

Why Steps to Hope?

We first heard of Steps to Hope back in October 2019. We asked our local community for suggestions of a charity to nominate for Skipton Building Society’s Community Giving Fund. Votes for Steps to Hope came flooding in! Seeing so much support for them encouraged Ross Stisi, our MD and Bearded Broker, to find out more! So, Ross met the charity’s inspiring founder Richard Roncero – a recovering addict himself – to learn about their work. He then met up again with Richard earlier this year, to catch up on the charity’s news.

The incredible work of Steps to Hope and its tireless volunteers is very humbling. Ross learned that the organisation provides an extensive service in Edinburgh, which has increased to meet the challenges of the coronavirus crisis. The charity currently provides food for those on the streets five days a week, running three soup kitchens and operating a mobile catering van. As a result, they are feeding around 450 people each week through lockdown.

In addition, the organisation offers a weekly overnight shelter, and provides a supportive presence on the streets, giving out hot coffee in the early mornings to those they find living on the streets. Another vital part of their work is to support service users before they begin rehabilitation, by paying for daily living costs and accommodation. Key to the charity’s strength is that over half of their volunteers are addicts in recovery. This helps to break down barriers between service users and the support on offer.

Why a Charity of the Year?

What Richard and his hard-working team of volunteers do for the most vulnerable in our community is just amazing. They are truly passionate and caring. We’ve learned more about their work over the past months, and have seen the immense efforts they are going to. The coronavirus lockdown has really highlighted all of this. As a team, we felt more and more strongly that we wanted to add our support.

So, our Charity of the Year programme was born!

How we’ll support Steps to Hope

We’ll be supporting Steps to Hope in a number of ways throughout the year:

• We pay clients a £50 thank you for any referrals. Clients can now donate £10 (or more) of their referral fee to our Charity of the Year.
• We pay professional introducers (estate agents, etc) for referrals. They will also have the option to make a contribution to the charity.
• Our monthly ‘dress down’ fund will go towards Steps to Hope.
• Team Stisi look to take part in charity events, with the funds they raise donated to the charity.
• We’ll help to raise awareness of Steps To Hope through our digital communications and our social media platforms.

Richard Roncero, Steps to Hope founder, said: “We are absolutely delighted to be chosen as the charity of the year by Stisi Group. The love and support that we have received already has been incredible and we look forward to working with you in the future.”

Ross Stisi, Stisi Group managing director, said: “We’re very excited to announce our new Charity of the Year programme. Playing an active role in our community is important to us, and we’re proud to support Steps to Hope. It’s clear to see how passionate and driven Richard and his team of volunteers are in all they do. We have been really inspired seeing their work to give Edinburgh’s homeless and those suffering addiction a chance for change.”

If you would like to make a donation to Steps to Hope, you can do so on their website.