Sometimes, life just doesn’t go how you wanted and expected it to be. A single breaking point can cost someone everything — including a roof over their head. The team of Cornerstone made it their mission to give people in homelessness the second chance they desperately need, writes volunteer community journalist, Carla Krenzke.
A warm smell of timber and varnish hangs in the air as you enter the Cornerstone furniture store in the middle of Clayton Street in Bishop Auckland – which is just in front of the Homeless Hub. The wooden pieces are partially being made by the people in need and partially in collaboration with the County Durham furniture-health schemes. The hub is completely unfunded, so it relies on donations, shop sales, and self-generated income from the workshop. That’s why all their revenue goes back to the charity.
In between the wardrobes, beds and garden tables stands a small wooden stool called a “cracker”, which tells the charity’s whole story. Communications and support lead Nicky Morson explains: over 20 years ago, founder Steve Vasey took in a homeless man, and he destroyed his whole apartment. Steve’s response? He grabbed a fag pack, wrote a licence agreement on the back of it: the man will have to accompany him twice a week to work, and then he can sell the pieces he produced, which turned out to be crackers, and buy something nice for his new apartment. That work-therapy ethos has been at the heart of Cornerstone ever since. Crackers were originally made for the mines, tying the charity’s roots firmly to Bishop Auckland’s own history.
Now, the Cornerstone Charity has two homeless hubs, in Bishop Auckland and Hartlepool; a large workshop in Willington; and around 70 houses across the northeast, where they offer help to everyone in need.
The team consists of 15 staff members, with a strong network of partner organisations.
The reason we visited in the first place was the major upgrade of the hub, with new computers, showers, kitchen facilities, lockers, and one-to-one support rooms. It’s open Monday to Friday, 10am–2pm, with a community drop-in on Mondays and Thursdays (12–2pm) offering drug and alcohol support, smoking cessation, and adult wellbeing services.
Cornerstone’s team of 15 drives all of this — but they’ll be the first to tell you that one of their most valuable members has four legs. Bob, an almost 5-year-old mixture of Labrador, Collie and Alsatian, is the UK’s first-ever therapy dog for homeless people. Nicky, his owner, claims that he makes a massive difference. She explains that often people can be afraid to engage with workers, but Bob puts them at ease by offering comfort and love. Having a lovely dog who takes a bit of the stress off them can be a vital step, because for many, the first step is the hardest. As Nicky puts it: “When people are on the street, they are massively exhausted — they can’t focus on anything because they’re just knackered. So we put them in a spot purchase just to rest and encourage them to engage.” Once they do, the results can be remarkable. “It’s just giving people that confidence again — getting them into what we class as a normal, safe environment where they can start growing again.”
The best support, it turns out, isn’t always a conversation. Sometimes it’s a saw, a plank of wood, and an afternoon with no pressure. Dom Vasey works at the woodworking shop in Willington. Every Tuesday he gets visitors because it’s open volunteering day. “It helps them, it helps us.”, says Dom.
One person who knows this firsthand is John Jo, who was referred to Cornerstone through Man Health on release from prison. He now volunteers at the workshop regularly: “When they go down there to help and make stuff, it’s really good for your mind.”
John is far from the only one whose journey has come full circle. Nicky told us about Aidan – a 25-year-old man who had a heroin addiction and a history of armed robbery. Today, he is fully trained, works full-time on the frontline housing response team, and just passed his driving licence – funded by the charity. What was once a story of survival has become one of purpose.
Stories like John’s and Aidan’s prove that Cornerstone is so much more than just a charity. It’s a place where new lives are being made by simply offering help and because someone chose to see the good in them. That’s what Cornerstone does. That’s what a second chance looks like.
Carla Krenzke
Bishop Auckland's local community newspaper.
