About Us
The HBU project has been developed by Changing Lives.
We’ve been changing lives for over 50 years and help around 14,000 people each year. Our aim is to drive change to support more people in more communities.
We are changing lives
At Changing Lives we believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to reach their potential. We are experts in working with people experiencing the most challenging of circumstances, providing holistic support to help people to go on to lead happy, fulfilling lives. We work across four – often interconnected – areas to address the most common causes of social exclusion and long-term deprivation: Housing and Homelessness, Addiction and Recovery, Women and Children, and Employment and Training.
Changing Lives has been helping people facing some of the most challenging circumstances for 50 years. We began as a small charity in the North East called Tyneside Cyrenians, later The Cyrenians, helping people who were experiencing homelessness through our hostels and day centres.
With the appointment of Stephen Bell in 2002, we began to look at homelessness as a part of a system, one which can lead to people feeling trapped and unable to access the support they need. We began to expand our services in both provision and geography. We now operate nationally, helping thousands of people each year to change their lives for the better. In 2013 we re-branded as Changing Lives to mark our growth and our ongoing commitment to providing the support people need to make positive change - for good.