The case of Ivan Lucci

Within the Churchill family, our Chequers and Renovo businesses are involved in supporting a variety of social housing projects in and around London with cleaning and grounds management services.

Renovo is a joint venture between Chequers and One Housing, a housing association and a not-for-profit organisation with a strong social purpose.

One Housing’s operations include Arlington, a hostel for the homeless in London that incorporates a conference centre.  Chequers runs BICSc and other training programmes at Arlington.

One Housing saw the value in the programmes and opened them up to Crisis, one of its partners. Crisis is a national charity for people experiencing homelessness. Members are offered expert help to find safe housing and an opportunity to gain new skills as well as wellbeing support.

Ivan Lucci was a member of Crisis and was being supported by his Crisis coach. Thanks to that help, he became aware of our training programmes and subsequently attended the Chequers training centre. He successfully passed his day’s course, impressed our training team, and as a result was later offered an interview.

The good news didn’t end there because Ivan was subsequently offered a job. He now works for Churchill Cleaning at the Stratford Centre, a shopping mall and indoor market in Stratford town centre, east London.  He works four hours a day, five days a week.

For Ivan, this was an important achievement. He said: ”I was desperate to find a job, not only for the money but for my sense of self-worth. When you have experienced having no fixed abode and no job, the world feels so bleak. The teams at Crisis, Chequers and Churchill all pulled together to help me, and it has made a very big difference to my life.

“Everyone helped me to get back into the workplace and what’s more find a way of earning enough money to supplement my benefits without losing them. I am 42 years old and finally getting back on my feet. I have somewhere to live, I have a job and I feel genuinely optimistic about the future.”

Said Naomi Childe, director at Chequers: “The Churchill Group takes its social value responsibilities seriously, and all the businesses in the group look to add value to the communities they are part of. We run various initiatives to help disadvantaged people from our communities get back into the workplace, but the success of them is still dependent upon the qualities of the people we meet.”

“Ivan showed all the characteristics we look for, he was willing, pitched in and showed enthusiasm. At his later interview, he impressed more of my colleagues and that’s how he earned his role. It is great to know that we have helped Ivan get back on his feet, and to be able to share his story to inspire others.”