Latest news with #Llamau
South Wales Argus
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South Wales Argus
Rock for Llamau Festival in Crumlin raises £6,000 for Llamau
Housed this year at The Patriot in Crumlin, the line-up for the whopping three-day event on the last weekend in May featured 15 of the best bands and artists that South Wales has to offer. Rock for Llamau was first organised by Gina Hurley in 2016 to gather funds to help some of the most vulnerable people in Wales. Since then, a total of seven live music and auction events have been held, raising thousands of pounds in aid of Wales's leading homelessness charity. With the festival now in its eighth year and with help from its new home, The Patriot, the event has grown to become a three-day ordeal for the first time, with every band on the line-up donating their time to play for audiences and help raise funds for a worthy cause. 'I believe no one, especially young people, should be homeless,' said Ms Hurley, 'Some of the reasons why these people are homeless is horrific. Everyone deserves a safe and warm home. I wanted to use my skills to help those lacking what we take for granted.' Gina Hurley addresses the Rock for Llamau audience (Image: Megan Jenkins, Newsquest) Since having begun contributing to Llamau's cause in 2015, Ms Hurley has raised around £25,000 – enough to fund over 800 counselling sessions to develop positive mental health. This year's event alone has contributed over £6000 to the sum with the final figure yet to be confirmed, far exceeding their hopes and expectations. 'The music scene always attracts people that want to make a difference and using music to promote Llamau was a no-brainer,' said Ms Hurley. Sally Telford, of Llamau, said: "This year felt like the perfect time to scale up from a day-festival to a full weekender, and we couldn't be prouder of the result. 'The heart of this event is to celebrate Welsh heavy music, foster a supportive community and fundraise for Llamau's to end homelessness in Wales. 'While the figures aren't in yet, we have broken a new fundraising record of at least £6,000. This is a testament to Gina Hurley's tireless work and spirit, and Ange and The Patriot staff's generous choice to provide the venue and staffing to make this happen. 'We cannot thank everyone involved enough."
BBC News
18-03-2025
- General
- BBC News
Homelessness: I sat my GCSEs while living in a hotel temporarily
I'm 17 and I live in Cardiff, but for 18 months I was this time, I sat my GCSEs, started college and got a new baby brother - but it was mentally draining.I see homelessness talked about, but how me and my seven siblings experienced it was completely name is Mia, and I was the Welsh winner of the BBC Young Reporter Competition 2024, looking into how a lack of housing impacts young people.I want other young people like me to know they are not alone. Losing the house came as a surprise to my day we got a random letter about a no fault eviction but we didn't know what it had to do some googling before realising we were being kicked out of our house. We stayed in two hotels and one flat before getting a council house in August first, everyone was really excited to stay in a hotel, but as time went on we realised that it wasn't fun or a free tried to be considerate of the guests and some staff were nicer than others, but you could tell some didn't want us had to share rooms, which we were used to, but also had to share beds and had to eat instant noodles as we didn't have a was harder for my little siblings as they were a bit more had no alone time which made our feelings heightened, and I struggled with personal to school was hard too. I was sitting my GCSEs and found having to get a few buses, some which didn't show up, to school every day really draining.I was cooped up, sharing with my siblings and it was hard to revise from the bed or in the communal areas of the hotel.I laid all the papers out on the bed and sticky notes on the walls. As well as struggling to get school work done, I really missed being near my friends and family and felt like I missed would say at the end of the day things such as "oh, I'm going home", but you couldn't really say that because it wasn't a school would check in and give me leftover food at the end of the day to take back for everyone. It meant not having to worry about sorting friends were great too, but it was hard to talk about as they did not always understand. People didn't look at me and think 'homeless' I've realised that people create a stigma around the word "homelessness", and think it means people sleeping on the Welsh government said there were 1,461 occurrences of homeless people being placed into temporary accommodation in October total, there were 11,319 individuals in temporary accommodation at the end of that month. The most common types were bed and breakfasts, and hotels, housing 3,423 individuals. I wondered how many young people like me are included in these numbers, so I spoke to Shaun Bendle from charity Llamau, who are working to end homelessness.I was surprised when he told me around 6,300 young people got support for homelessness in Wales last also said for people who are homeless on their 21st birthday, there is a 73% chance they will be homeless again."People may assume homelessness is an older man and a rough sleeper but homelessness can affect anyone of any age," said Shaun. "A lot of people sofa surf, or wouldn't even realise they are homeless technically. "It counts as homeless if you don't have anywhere safe to say."He said while numbers have stayed consistent over the last few years, young people need more "intense" support centred on them for the long term."You may only be homeless for a few months but the impact can follow you for the rest of your life," he told said we need to better understand homelessness so we can spot people at risk. Now me and my family have a permanent home, it is quite shocking to look back on how hard it was, and how stressed everyone was when we got the letter.I think it's made us all more mature because of what we've been through together, and it has definitely brought us well as having a nice home to live in, we are close to friends, family and school.I don't think it's really acknowledged how it affects people other than adults, but it affects children's mental health, especially if like me you have exams to worry also hard for young people to not see their friends and is overall just draining.I would say speak to your friends and teachers - even though they couldn't always help, they did what they could to support me. It feels unreal that we went through it for so long, and when we got the house it was unbelievable.I am at college now and I want to be a journalist. I like writing and reading and after speaking to Shaun really enjoyed finding more information from charities.I work part-time in the same café I worked in while homeless, and I meet people of all always refer to things that happened "when I was your age", which is quite funny because of the way things have evolved for is something that has changed but there is still a long way to go. I hope I can help other people with my story. A spokesperson for Cardiff council said the city had been "grappling with a housing emergency for the past two years".They blamed the shortage of affordable housing, cost of living, and challenges within the private rented sector for "overwhelming demand".The spokesperson added hotels are always intended to be temporary and acknowledged the "difficulties faced by families".They added families are assigned support workers and the council is continuing to work to use hotels less.
