A CHARITY offering support and assistance towards housing has been recognised for its passionate work in the community.
Stockton-based charity The Moses Project has scooped the prestigious Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.
Run by local couple Brian and Stella Jones and a small team of passionate and dedicated volunteers, The Moses Project is a lifeline for adult men with past and current addictions to drugs and alcohol.
Founded in 2011, the project offers mentoring and support, assistance with housing and benefit applications, introductions to a positive lifestyle and one-to-one support alongside regular team-building activities and outings.
“We see our clients as family,” says Brian. “And we set about helping them see life in a different way.”
Brian’s wife Stella introduced him to volunteering for a Christian coffee bus that serviced Stockton and Middlesbrough on a Thursday and Friday night.
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“Stella put my name down to drive the bus,” he recalls, “But I argued that I didn’t want to be involved with ‘those’ people. How wrong I was!
“I met many lovely, precious people badly damaged by their childhoods which set them on the wrong path. No one cared for them and they either lived rough or in broken down bedsits.
“They were lost and turned to drugs/alcohol to hide their pain and take away their anger.”
Brian and Stella had stumbled across a lost world of people who were forgotten and disengaged from society, and often had people to stay with them.
“We saw the changes and what a difference love can make,” says Brian.
When the bus come to an end, Brian and Stella worked on the streets of Stockton town centre helping people. They knew they had to do more to support people. After 18 months of research, The Moses Project was formed on September 1 2011, and people began to flood in, seeing the building as a beacon of light in their darkness.
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All these years later, The Moses Project is still playing a vital part in the lives of so many men.
With the support of Stockton Borough Council outreach services and homeless section, CGL, probation services, NHS mental health, housing associations and three Christian rehab centres who offer supervised detox, Brian and Stella are seeing more and more success stories.
“By offering support with life’s everyday problems in a caring environment where everyone is welcome, we can provide clients with the means to recover and rebuild their lives,” explains Brian.
Rewarded last year with the British Empire Medal (BEM) for service to the community, the Queen’s Award means the world to Stella, Brian and their team.
“It was a huge but welcome shock,” says Brian, whose project had been nominated by local MP Matt Vickers and Stockton councillor Bob Cook.
Mr Vickers name checked the couple and their work in the House of Commons, holding The Moses Project as a benchmark for his argument that the charity sector is the best way of tackling rough sleeping once and for all.
And he also introduced Brian and Stella to chancellor Rishi Sunak, who has promised to pay a visit to the project.
Sue Snowdon, Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant of County Durham, said: “The Moses Project changes lives, offering essential guidance, mentoring and support to hundreds of men who have become disengaged from society. It draws out the skills, motivation and expertise of its volunteers in an exceptional way. I am absolutely delighted to congratulate them on this richly-deserved award”.
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