LJMU donation to Whitechapel Centre

Professor Peter Byers, Lila Tamea and Julianna Petkovic with some of the items for rough sleepers being funded by LJMU’s donation.

LJMU donates over £7k to help rough sleepers

Liverpool John Moores University has donated over £7,000 to support people sleeping rough in the city.

LJMU has given the money to the Whitechapel Centre, the leading homeless and housing charity in the Liverpool City Region.

The university pledged to make a donation for every National Student Survey (NSS) completed by final year undergraduate students earlier this year.

The Whitechapel Centre was nominated as the chosen charity by Liverpool John Moores University Students’ Union (JMSU) and the total amount raised was £7,300 (including a £500 pledge from LJMU’s Doctoral Academy, raised through completion of the Postgraduate Research Experience Survey).

Professor Peter Byers, LJMU’s Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education), said: “I’m delighted that we have been able to make this substantial donation to such a fantastic local charity, nominated by JMSU.

“As a modern, civic university, it is important to us that we are connected to our city and our communities and this money will do a huge amount of good for many local people.

“Thank you to all of our students who took the time to complete the National Student Survey 2019. As well as raising money for our charity donation, their responses help us to learn more about what we are doing well at LJMU and where we might be able to make enhancements for the future.”

Julianna Petkovic, Fundraiser at the Whitechapel Centre, said: “The Whitechapel Centre would like to thank LJMU for their donation of £7,300. This generous donation will be used to ensure that people who are homeless and staying with us at Labre House night shelter can be provided with clean clothes, toiletries, towels, sleeping bags, roll mats and pillows.

“We have an average of 78 people staying every night and more than 250 different people each month so the need to purchase these items has never been greater.

“Thank you to the students of LJMU, who nominated us as their charity for the National Student Survey and have helped enable us to end homelessness for people throughout the Liverpool City Region.”

Lila Tamea, VP Academic Quality at JMSU, said: “We’re really pleased to see this money going to the Whitechapel Centre, a charity that does so much to combat homelessness in Liverpool.

“We nominated this charity because we know that homelessness is an issue that all students see on a daily basis, whether they have grown up here or moved to the city to study, and we want to do our best to support the local community and help those who need it the most.

“Thank you to the students who completed the survey in your thousands and helped support local people in finding and maintaining a home to live independently.”