O’Neill & Brennan have recently partnered up with Buses4homeless. This charity has refurbished decommissioned double decker buses into spaces for eating, sleeping, wellbeing, and learning in order to reintegrate homeless people back into the community.
The work they are doing at buses4homeless is truly wonderful, helping the lives of so many homeless people get back on their feet, offering a safe place for them to stay, and helping to remove the barriers that stop these individuals from getting a job or accommodation.
O’Neill & Brennan have offered Buses4homeless funding, training, and employment solutions. We use employment opportunities from our Logistics subcontractor business, and vacancies from our main contracting and housebuilding clients, to help provide employment and career opportunities.
Our collaboration with Buses4homeless has had its first success story. Aaron Peck, who has been living at Buses4homeless has now gained employment through us, working at Multiplex (landmark project in One Nine Elms), and by doing so he has been able to save for a deposit, which enabled him to rent his own accommodation. At Buses4homeless, individuals are given skills to become financially independent and learn ways to sustain themselves as they move on with their lives. This is an amazing step for Aaron and it has transformed his life, as without the help of Buses4homeless and O’Neill & Brennan he could still be living on the streets.
Aaron found himself homeless when he was living in a one-bedroom flat that he could no longer afford. His friend at the time was buying a property and said Aaron could move in and sleep on the sofa, but this all fell through and Aaron ended up living on the streets. He enquired with the local council, but as a single man in London with no dependents he was told he had very little chance of getting any accommodation.
When we chatted with Aaron he mentioned that the founder Dan Atkins, along with Hen MacEwen and the rest of the team are very inspiring and positive people to be around and he has been given the right support, training courses, and opportunities to put him in a position to be employable.
Buses4homeless have a bus with a kitchen where there is an opportunity to learn how to cook healthy meals. He mentioned that he now feels much more confident to cook meals for himself. His self-esteem has grown immensely and he has appreciated feeling part of a supportive, empowering, caring community and he said he felt so much safer than living on the streets.
Aaron undertook training through us to be a Covid Marshall (O&B accredited COVID19 course) and worked for us at Kings Cross. He then undertook further training and is now working as a Traffic Marshall in our team at Multiplex One Nine Elms. His line manager Clarence really appreciates him and says he works safely, has good timekeeping, and is welcoming and friendly to everyone on site. Aaron says that regular work with O’Neill & Brennan has given him great structure and purpose to his life. This success story is evidence that people should not be defined by their circumstances.
A quote from Dan Atkins the founder of Buses4homeless.
“We want to say a massive thanks to O’Neill & Brennan for your fantastic support of our project, for Aaron and future attendees on our programme. When we collaborate together with caring and compassionate employers and training providers, we can make an even bigger impact in people’s lives. Thanks again for helping Aaron’s journey. We greatly appreciate it and look forward to working closely with O’Neill & Brennan in the future.”
