Cardinal Hume Centre wins national award

Source: Cardinal Hume Centre

London-based charity, the Cardinal Hume Centre, has won one of five coveted awards at Homeless Link's national Excellence Awards 2026.

The Cardinal Hume Centre, which supports young people, children and families to overcome poverty and avoid homelessness through a range of services, won the Excellent Support Award for its temporary accommodation outreach project. The project brought high quality play and learning directly into temporary accommodation settings and used this as an opportunity to connect families into wider support.

Homeless Link is the national membership charity for frontline homelessness organisations, and its annual awards recognise the innovative and impactful work happening across the sector to support people experiencing homelessness and rough sleeping in England.

The Cardinal Hume Centre's project created psychologically informed and welcoming spaces that encouraged families to spend more time outside their rooms and help children to thrive. At the same time it enabled the team to build trust with parents, identifying longer-term challenges, and connecting families with assessment, advocacy and casework services.

Over the course of the project, the Cardinal Hume Centre:

- Provided 78 play and learning sessions
- Registered 146 people with the service via the outreach team
- Helped 32 families with housing and employment outcomes
- Supported 12 children to get school places

The organisation was selected from 121 entries to the Excellence Awards across the five categories, 33 of which were shortlisted.

The judging panel, composed of experts from across the homelessness sector, commended the organisation for its economical, effective and easily replicable model, and strong partnership work.

Karen Davey, Head of Service Development, said: "We are incredibly proud that the Centre's work has been recognised in this way as we mark the beginning of our 40th anniversary year. Our focus is firmly on the experiences of the child, both to alleviate the immediate impact of homelessness and to prevent it from reoccurring in the future. Every child has the right to grow up in a safe, stable environment, with access to opportunities to learn, develop and explore through play. As we look ahead, we are committed to working with partners to expand and scale our outreach model, ensuring that the children currently living in temporary accommodation in Westminster and beyond are seen, supported, and never forgotten."

Rick Henderson, Chief Executive of Homeless Link, said: "The Cardinal Hume Centre is providing invaluable support to children and families experiencing homelessness, helping to alleviate the potentially damaging effects of living in temporary accommodation. Through its accessible, welcoming sessions, the organisation has created an excellent model for temporary accommodation support. We congratulate them on receiving this award."

LINKS

Excellence Awards: https://homeless.org.uk/what-we-do/building-a-movement/excellence-awards/

Cardinal Hume Centre: www.cardinalhumecentre.org.uk/

Homeless Link: https://homeless.org.uk/