How often has a pair of piercing blue eyes late at night led us to do something we weren’t necessarily intending to? For ICAEW member Heather Lamont, one such moment led to a career in the voluntary sector and a long-term involvement with Crisis, the national charity for single homeless people.
On her first shift as a volunteer at Crisis during Christmas 1989, she was ‘addressed by this chap whom, probably even a week before, I would have walked past in the street because he was a rough old drunk. He looked right into my eyes – and he had these most amazing piercing blue eyes – and I have never forgotten it because it was the first time I’d ever looked at a homeless person as a person, rather than someone who was homeless or a beggar on the street. It made me realise, first, that just because you are homeless doesn’t mean you are not a person, and second, how lucky I was and am and how easy it would be for any of us to end up in that situation.’
More than 20 years on, she is still involved as a volunteer (in her day job, she is client investment director with CCLA, the UK’s largest manager of charity funds) but now she is a trustee and the charity’s treasurer.
Since those first days, Crisis has undergone a radical change in its approach to homelessness. It has expanded its focus to address the issues that keep people homeless, such as drug and alcohol addiction, education and self-confidence.
‘The work is just so important. Homelessness can happen to anyone – even accountants. I know because I met one, one Christmas, when I was volunteering. I can think of three things that could go wrong in my life and I could be there too. It’s less likely now with 20 years of stability and professional work behind me, but I’ve seen it and it’s a very short chain of events.’
This feature appeared in the December 2010 edition of Accountancy.
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If you are interested in learning more or donating, visit Crisis.
Find out more about ICAEW support for members working in the charitable and voluntary sector.
- Changing lives
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One of Crisis’ most successful initiatives is Changing Lives, a scheme that offers single homeless people up to £2,500 to pay for work-related courses or to buy equipment for a job, a course or to become self-employed. Every autumn, Crisis hosts the Changing Lives Champions Awards, which recognise individuals who, through hard work and Changing Lives, have transformed their lives.
Lydia Wall, winner of the 2010 Education & Training Award, has an amazing story to tell. In 2004 she was recently widowed, depressed, living in a squat and eking out a living as a clown. She hit rock bottom when her clown hat was damaged and she had no money for repairs. Then someone told her about a Skylight course where she might be able to mend it. She went and was entranced: ‘I’d been admiring hats for years and wearing them but never thought I could actually make one.’
Six years on, Lydia has completed a full-time millinery course at Kensington & Chelsea College and done work experience with some of London’s leading milliners – including Philip Treacy who offered her a 10-month contract after just four weeks of her being there. Now she plans to start her own millinery business. Her grant enabled her to buy essential materials for college, including crystals, feathers, a sewing machine and a digital camera. The scheme has been supported by Barclays but the agreement has come to an end. Crisis is now looking for new supporters to carry on the work.
- Heather Lamont
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Heather Lamont is client investment director at CCLA, a role she took on in 2008 after working as head of business development at HSBC’s charity investment team. Previously she worked in Kingston Smith’s specialist charity audit team after spending five years as editor of Charity Finance and finance director of its owner, Civil Society.
She qualified with Ernst & Young in 1992.
She is treasurer and a trustee of Crisis, a trustee of the National Animal Welfare Trust and a governor of the Cripplegate Foundation where she chairs the finance and general purposes committee. She also sits on the ICAEW’s ethics advisory committee.