In a short space of time People for People has come a long way, and helped a lot of people in Stevenage and Hitchin, say organisers – but there’s still a lot to be done.
The community group was set up to help good causes in the area and has also attracted a lot of attention on the businesses which have supported it. Now the founders are urging more firms to get involved.
Stephanie Rose helped set up the Stevenage group and created the Hitchin one shortly after.
She runs a florist in The Arcade and said: “It is a good charitable feeling when you have done something nice for someone in the community.
“It’s good for business too. People come into the shop and say they have seen what we have done. I’ve been mainly focusing on the Stevenage group but I want to see the Hitchin one grow, too. I would encourage more shops to get involved. I would like to see them coming forward with their own ideas about how to help people in the community.”
Kenny Arnold runs a hair salon in the High Street and helped set up the Stevenage group. Since then he has supported various projects including giving homeless people free haircuts and holding collections for the Stevenage Community Food Bank.
He said: “It is such an easy thing to do. Our customers were delighted with the collection. Some of them left money and told us to buy things or they brought stuff in. It’s good for business too because it makes people feel that they’re going somewhere which really cares.
“When we gave the haircuts to the people at The Haven homeless shelter my staff were buzzing despite working for free. It just shows you that kindness is a very contagious thing. There’s nothing hard about it either. All you have to do is put a poster up and tell your clients. We’ve already had Hannah Walder from Osteopathy First and Fran Moore from Tessella Limited sign up for a collection. It won’t stay there forever, just a few weeks, until someone else takes it on. But it’s a community group and we need everyone to join in for it to work.”
To contact either group search People for People Stevenage or Hitchin on Facebook and message the page directly.
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