Our goal is to support homeless people and families by providing them individually-tailored financial, social and psychological support in order to facilitate their efforts to break out of homelessness. We believe that everyone has the key to bringing about change in their lives and to stepping ahead. Our plan with the funds raised through Swimathon is to support five homeless people in making the first steps in this direction (be it acquiring a skill or a work equipment, learning a profession, or bring about psychological change) and to help them find the way out of their seemingly hopeless situation.

The relevant institutional system often conserves the condition of homelessness instead of showing a way out of it. People and families who end up in shelters are usually stuck there for decades. Every homeless person has a distinct personality and life story; thus the support needs to be tailored to them. Instead of institutions and their users, our programme draws on the cooperation of helpers and those in need of help, and takes into account life stories and motivations of the latter.

Our swimmers will raise money to help five homeless people/families step out of homelessness. The funds raised will be used to finance their education, their acquiring a profession or a work equipment; we will also pay a social worker assisting them, as well as the costs of case conferences. Most homeless people had extremely rough childhoods and taxing life stories, therefore we will finance individual and family therapy, as well as mental health support to help our clients come to terms with their traumatic experiences. Homeless people, together with the social workers, submit an application describing the life stories, financial plans and risks. The organisation’s board evaluates the applications and selects the ones to support.

Expected timeline:

• 2019 July: establishing cooperation, agreement with organisations supporting homeless people in Ferencváros. Developing the call for proposals + guidelines, dissemination, providing information.
• 2019 Aug – Sept: receiving applications, requesting additional information, consultations with applicants. Evaluation of applications, selecting those who will be supported, signing agreements.
• 2019 Sept – 2020 March: implementation of individual programmes. 3 case conferences, individual consultations with mentors.
• 2020 March: Evaluation, conclusion

5. Envisaged project budget (types of costs and amounts/rates)

• Direct financial support for five homeless persons (training, therapy etc.): 950,000HUF (190,000HUF/person on average)
• Fees for social workers (100,000HUF/person, 6 months)
• 4-hour case conferences: 102,000HUF (per occasion and per person, 17,000HUF gross)
• Programme manager: 450,000HUF (50,000HUF gross, 9 months)
• Operational costs: 450,000HUF (office, phone, internet, accounting, payroll, bank etc.)
TOTAL: 2,452,000HUF

We would like to raise 2 million HUFs, which we plan to use to support 5 homeless persons or families. Support would include, depending on the needs, training, acquiring work equipment, social work, psychotherapy, support for helpers, and programme coordination. One programme costs cc. 400,000HUF and takes about 9 months but the type of support, the costs and the timeframe may vary according to individual needs. We may discover along the way that additional intervention would be needed or that a client becomes open to psychotherapy. In such cases we will need to re-plan.

Our programme is an existing method to improve the lives of homeless people and help them at an important stage in their way out of homelessness. Some 80% of our cases are successful and had only very few cases of complete failure in our 18-year operation. Investment in creating opportunities shows imminent results: our clients achieve better status in the labour market, find employment, start going to school; they experience improvement in their relationships, self-perception, their mental state, and financial situation; they move out of a shelter. We continue to monitor the progress of our applicants after the conclusion of the programme.

Van Esély Foundation
We see life stories. We believe that in order to help people break out of homelessness we must look at their personalities and life stories. Our goal is to help the poorest acquire jobs and find real homes. For a homeless people to be able to live like others, they must be able to believe in themselves and trust those who, after getting to know them, support their efforts. They must receive help to realize their plans. Our organisation draws on the apparatus of professional social work and provides tailored-made support to help our clients.

Name: Van Esély Foundation
Address: 1082 Budapest, Baross u 41.
Date of court registration: 2016.04.29.
No. of court registration: 01-01-0007924
Tax number: 18170421-1-42
Website: www.vanesely.hu
Contact person: Cecília Keresztes
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: +36703619296