Glee star and Virgin Unite ambassador Cory Monteith, has visited Foyer Centre in London to meet with young people being supported by the charity, which provides affordable and safe accommodation linked to employment, training opportunities and a range of other services.
Cory Monteith spent time touring the centre, which provides safe accommodation for young people, to see the facilities that range from a training room with computers to allow for job searches to literacy and numeracy lessons to a canteen that offers meals and cooking lessons. Joined by a small group of residents who shared their stories and hopes for the future, Cory said, “It was great to meet such an inspiring group of young people. I’m impressed at how positive the group is despite facing so many challenges. They’re keen to move forward and gain the necessary skills needed to get their lives back on track.”
Kereice, who has been living at the Foyer centre for 18 months, said “I knew I wanted to get involved with event management and volunteered to get the skills needed and now feel more confident and now have a part time post with the Haze Young people’s centre. Cory’s words of encouragement have given us all a massive boost. It’s been a dream come true.”
Cory then headed over to The Roof Gardens’ Babylon Restaurant in Kensington, to join the six winning ‘special youth ambassadors’ chosen from the UK search launched by Virgin Unite and Cory at the beginning of June. Chosen for their inspirational essays about the importance of volunteering, they shared ideas of how they intend to raise awareness of youth homelessness, over three months for three fantastic charities – Albert Kennedy Trust, Depaul UK and the Foyer Federation. Cory also spent time with key workers from the three charities to discover what their needs and wants are from the winning ambassadors who as members of the public will raise awareness of what they learn from visiting the charities and spending time with the young people they support.
Special youth ambassador Zoe Chanas said, “Today has been amazing! Meeting Cory was beyond cool and I’m excited about using social media to let people know about the issues and how they can get involved.”
Jean Oelwang, CEO, Virgin Unite, said, “We’re extremely lucky to have such a dedicated ambassador in Cory. He is inspiring his thousands of fans to volunteer, whilst raising awareness of at-risk and homeless young people here in the UK. We are so grateful that Cory took the time to listen and learn from some wonderful young people in the UK and look forward to having him work with these six Youth Ambassadors to ensure that we never accept young people having to live on the streets.”
