Lift - a unique and innovative homelessness charity based in Harlesden in north London is to merge with Crisis.

The boards of trustees of each charity met this week and agreed the merger. 

The current staff team at Lift will be retained and together with Crisis will extend the breadth of services available to homeless people in the local area over the coming months. 

Lift, originally set up by homeless people as the Brent Homeless User Group (B.HUG) in September 2001, has helped hundreds of people each year to find new homes, gain new skills and employment.

Lift is due to formally become part of Crisis on Friday 1^st April 2016. Initially Lift will continue to operate as Lift and eventually will become Crisis Skylight Brent.

The merger follows positive discussions between the two charities about the potential to extend services in Brent. Crisis is also keen to learn from Lift’s user - centred approach to providing services and work with local communities.  

Lift offers employment, skills, housing and peer support services to homeless people in the area and has an excellent track record for its work.   

Crisis Chief Executive Jon Sparkes said:  

“We are delighted to be welcoming the Lift team into Crisis. They are doing important work in their local community and have a strong reputation for fully involving homeless people in shaping and delivery of their services, I’m sure we will learn a lot from them.   

Joining forces with Lift will enable us to extend our services and campaigning into another area of London. We recently started Crisis Skylight services in Croydon, so this will bring our services to ten regions and cities across the UK.” 

Lift Chief Executive Atara Fridler, who will become the Director of Crisis Skylight Brent said:  

“Over a number of years Lift has been able to make a bigger difference for and with disadvantaged people in Brent through collaborating with Crisis.   

So when we considered how we are going to ensure more resources are available to tackle the drastic increase in homelessness in Brent & really make an impact in ending homelessness, Crisis was an obvious partner.   

Joining forces with Crisis was not a necessary step but rather the right step. In addition to enabling us to do more in Brent our expertise around user involvement and community engagement will achieve greater impact within Crisis as a whole.”    

To find out more about Lift visit: www.liftpeople.org.uk