Joanna Lumley backs new ab fab Thames Reach homelessness campaign

Actress Joanna Lumley will be donning workman’s overalls and climbing aboard a cherry picker crane to hand-paint an advertising billboard promoting a Thames Reach campaign to raise money for the capital’s homeless.

Joanna is backing a charity campaign that pledges to spend every single penny donated by the public on helping homeless people in London, rather than paying for glossy ads.

The campaign is the brainchild of Mark and Lewis, two of London’s foremost creatives from the world of advertising, who gave up their time and expertise for free after seeing people sleeping rough on the capital’s streets whilst they were out training for a marathon.

This inspired them to seek out a charity known for providing effective services directly to the homeless rather than spending large sums of money on marketing.

Mark and Lewis’s idea was for a celebrity and a homeless volunteer to produce a hand-painted design for the campaign instead of trying to emulate the glossy ads favoured by charities with large advertising budgets.

Backing for the campaign came from Clear Channel Outdoor who donated in excess of a quarter of a million pounds worth of advertising space by freeing up 1,000 bus shelter advertising sites across London along with a large billboard in Vauxhall.

Last year, Thames Reach helped nearly 2,000 rough sleepers and over 5,000 people in need of support in order to avoid homelessness.

Thames Reach Chief Executive, Jeremy Swain, said: “Thames Reach has always put its resources into its frontline teams which work directly with homeless people, helping them to transform their lives.

"Our street outreach teams work across the capital every night of the year, frequently unnoticed by the public going about their business, helping rough sleepers to leave the streets behind for good. So this campaign highlights the activities of an unsung charity that has historically concentrated on providing services to some of society’s most vulnerable people.

“We can only run a campaign of this type, the cost of which would normally go well beyond our budget limits, because of the generosity of celebrities such as Joanna Lumley, and people from the world of advertising.

"Add to this the support and encouragement from the homeless people who use our services and we have, at last, a chance to raise the profile of homelessness and the work of Thames Reach.

“Now all we need is for the public to match this enthusiasm and goodwill by calling our freephone number 0845 901 1811 and making a donation.”

All monies raised will go on one of four projects:

• Thames Reach’s London Street Rescue service which helps rough sleepers off the streets and into accommodation.
• Thames Reach’s farm project, helping former rough sleepers escape from the relentless pace of city life and benefit from a day’s work on an organic farm in the heart of the Sussex countryside.
• Thames Reach’s TRaVEL volunteering project, helping former rough sleepers take the first steps towards getting back into work.
• Thames Reach’s Moving In Moving On project, helping homeless men and women train as painters and decorators, learn new skills, develop their self-confidence and make a fresh start.