web design
www.tillett.org.uk

We performed a selection of seasonal items, ranging from Sterndale-Bennett's The Carol Singers to A A Milne's King John's Christmas at the Sanderstead Literary Society's charity evening.  The retiring collection raised £175, and the performers were asked to choose the charity. 

We have selected the Sutton Furniture Project, which provides much-needed recycled furniture and household goods of all kinds to people across the borough of Sutton who have recently been homeless or sleeping rough, and are now being housed in permanent accommodation - some of them for the first time in many years.

A brief article about the work of the SFP appeared in the Sutton Guardian after Christmas:

Furniture needed  for poor families

Sutton Furniture Project (SFP) is urgently appealing for donations this Christmas after revealing some children in the borough are sleeping on bare concrete floors. 

SFP recently made a delivery to a family with three young children who didn't have a bed between them. 

The project was only able to offer one single bed, with the rest of the family including a three-year-old girl, continuing to sleep on the concrete floor.

Project manager Jennie Chapman confirmed that it was a common occurrence to find children sleeping in dire conditions. 

She said: "Week in, week out, we find ourselves delivering furniture to people who are sleeping on bare, uncarpeted, concrete floors.  It's heartbreaking to see people in these conditions but it's particularly hard when children are involved." 

The project reopened under new management in April this year and was overwhelmed by demand.  Since then, more than 140 households in situations of extreme financial hardship have been helped by the project and a waiting list now in operation.  A team of 80 volunteers, the majority from Sutton's Vineyard Church, has helped nearly 300 people.  SFP has also started a pilot scheme for supporting unemployed people with job skills. 

Update in 2006: Sutton Furniture Project is now rebranded as The Vine Project.