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Like many early social work initiatives in the United Kingdom, Aquila Way was born out of a passion of young Christians to help homeless young people in the Northeast of England. Over the last 20 years the charity, formerly Aquila Housing Association, has changed in many ways, but stayed true to the initial calling in Isaiah.'...to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter'
Aquila Way is now seeking to expand, developing its accommodation based services and community projects both within the Gateshead region and beyond. It is even franchising its business model and professional expertise to other regions, with some success. "Our vision is to see previously homeless or vulnerable people housed in good quality affordable accommodation" explained Victoria Spencer. "Our aim is to get many of them to be involved in the maintaining and renovating those same properties through our '58:12 Properties' scheme." The 58:12 is the reference to the Bible reference in Isaiah.
Aquila Way's Chief Executive Jo Grant said "As we grow, we recognised the need to manage our increasing number of contacts. We had all those involved with our projects, those people we help, our supporters and donors, volunteers, business partners and more."
Aquila Way is both a business, and a registered charity which is funded from donations and grants, but with some rental and investments income. The rest is from fundraising. Each year the charity runs a few large events such as the Christmas Ball, Garden Party and invites corporate sponsorship. It also forms partnerships with churches or private investors, getting them involved with the Aquila Way's "58:12 Properties" initiative which aims to change lives and restore communities. Aquila Way works with investors to acquire properties, acting as the letting agent, thus assuring the investor of 'social return' as they are used for homeless people.
The charity selected ProgressCRM from Fisk Brett, not only to organise the contacts, but to provide the central database for all the fundraising and financial management. But it also enables the development of the relationships with its sponsors and supporters, to maximise the levels of help that they could give. The 'contact history' of all its interaction with its many supporters and business partnerships is easily maintained in ProgressCRM.
Current partnerships include services in a wider local and national context, such as GAH (Gateshead Action on Homelessness), Supporting People, Local Safeguarding Children Board, Domestic Violence Partnership and more.
Contact history keeps an up-to-date record of all the latest communications to and from these many organisations, to enable Aquila Way staff to manage the business and to provide its services to those it helps. Permissions in the database are set so that different staff, or Trustees, or property managers only see the records that apply to them. This not only enables a level of security, but makes it easy to see just the information that is important to them. Aquila Way can also manage their volunteers in ProgressCRM. The charity enjoys the help it receives from a growing team of volunteers, but needs to monitor their personal details and background, time donated, skills, and other details.
"We have many ways for people to be involved," said Treasurer Fergus Scarfe. "This can be from volunteering just a few hours, to underwriting the cost of a new home for a homeless family. ProgressCRM enables us to manage and maximise all aspects of the support we get from individuals and organisations.
"Accuracy of information is essential to ensure that the two sides of Aquila Way, trading as a company and a registered charity, are correctly managed and compliant with all our statutory obligations. We are confident that the range of functionality in ProgressCRM, and the accuracy of the contact management of all our fundraising, ensures that Aquila Way is ideally placed to continue to help homeless young people begin their journey towards a new future."
For more details on Aquila Way, please see www.aquilaway.org
