The charity, Standing Tall, provides employment opportunities to homeless people trying to turn their lives around. Christy Acton (pictured) set up Standing Tall as a result of lessons learned from the ‘10,000 Small Businesses’ programme set up by investment bank Goldman Sachs at Aston University.

Acton said Standing Tall, which started in 2020 during Covid lockdown, had since helped almost 100 people. Talking about his experiences in the latest episode of the ‘Aston means business’ podcast, presented by journalist Steve Dyson, he said he got the idea while managing a night shelter in Birmingham and seeing some people who were “ready for full-time work”.

“We knew a couple of businesses in the city and matched up some of the people and it went really well. They grabbed the opportunity and were able to get ready to get their own place. I thought this has got potential.”

The charity, which also operates in London, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and Bristol, works with companies who have stable, full-time jobs available: “We then go and find the right person who has been through homelessness, who has the talent and the motivation to work hard.”

Acton says they have a member of staff in each city: “We call them talent scouts, and that’s entirely intentional because that’s what we do; we go and find the talent.”

Once a homeless person is ready to start a full-time job, Standing Tall also places with a host, someone with a spare room in their home where they can live for six months until they are ready to get their own place.

“We are being really careful to work with somebody for a period of time before we decide if one of our jobs is right for them. At the moment, 80% of the people we are helping are in the same job one year later.”

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