Ventura Inn & Suites Supports The People's Project in Hamilton
Monday 29 August 2016, 11:37AM
By Media PA
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By Tristan Hooker/MediaPA
Kenneth Mitchell of Hamilton’s Ventura Inn and Suites learned about The People’s Project by chance.
Kenneth, who purchased Ventura Inn and Suites in March 2016, lives in what he describes as a “Pavlova Paradise in the rural heartland of New Zealand, surrounded by sheep and sheep farmers.”
“I’d never seen people sleeping rough before,” says Kenneth, “but in Hamilton and other centres it appears this problem has been gathering momentum for a while.
“Then one night I walked around the corner to buy dinner and there in an old building was a group of people serving dinners to locally displaced people.”
The group Kenneth had stumbled across was the Hamilton Homeless Trust, which is one of two organisations working in different ways to deal with the problem of homelessness in Hamilton.
The other is The People’s Project, an organisation established in 2014 to address the public's concerns about the number of people sleeping rough in Hamilton.
A number of local businesses have pitched in to offer their support to The People’s Project, which uses the Housing First model, recognising that it’s easier for people to address the issues that lead to homelessness once they are housed.
“Ventura Inn and Suites is interested in working together in its immediate community,” says Kenneth Mitchell. “We don’t have any aspirations to work directly with the displaced but we do have resources to help.”
Kenneth has announced Ventura Inn and Suites will donate 82 beds to The People’s Project.
“Ventura is about to update all its 50 guest rooms with new mattresses and bases,” he says. “We will donate all the old ones to The Peoples Project.
“Call it social responsibility. We are just one of many organizations putting their hands up to be part of the solution. It would be great if we could all look back in ten years’ time and say, ‘yes, we helped solve that problem by sharing some of the Pavlova.’”
Contact Ventura Inn & Suites:
Ventura Inn & Suites Hamilton
23 Clarence St, Hamilton
Ph: +64 7 838 0110
Email: reservations@venturainns.co.nz
Website: http://www.venturainns.co.nz/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VenturaHamilton/
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