Herts Young Homeless – Our 2026 Charity of the Year

Herts Young Homeless (HYH) has a vision that every young person has a safe home from which they can grow and thrive. The mission is to prevent youth homelessness in Hertfordshire through education, advice and support for young people and their families. Young service users are aged 10–25 years old; they may be experiencing problems at home with their families, are homeless and need somewhere to stay or are living independently at a young age with little or no family support.

HYH truly believe in a youth informed approach and as such have recruited 11 young people aged 16-24 to form a Youth Advisory Board (YAB). Some of these young people have lived through the experience of homelessness themselves. The Board members meet on a regular basis to discuss and inform HYH on areas such as how to develop and deliver their services, and how they reach & communicate with young people.

One of the key areas the Board got involved in was HYH’s new 4-year strategy. The YAB members suggested that young people wouldn’t read a lengthy strategy document, so instead decided to produce, direct and deliver a short video.

Alongside the YAB, HYH want to create opportunities for young people to have a safe, inclusive space for their voices and opinions to be heard with the right audience to affect change.

HYH recently conducted a youth survey which included current and past service users as well as other young people in Hertfordshire. Over 240 young people completed the survey and gave us some helpful information. When asked – what stops a young person from asking for help from HYH:

34% said shame or embarrassment

25% said fear

22% said they didn’t know HYH existed

11% said they had no access to digital services

8% said family/home barriers

HYH vision – Every young person has a safe home from which they can grow and thrive.

Herts Yong Homeless – Recent Volunteering

One of the most rewarding aspects of working for a building society is the opportunity to volunteer alongside colleagues. At Harpenden Building Society, every colleague is given two days each year to support causes and projects within the local community.

In June 2026, the Harpenden Executive Team spent a day volunteering with our charity of the year, Herts Young Homeless, gardening, painting and transforming their Future Roots house.

Future Roots is a 5-bedroom home in Welwyn Garden City, where Herts Young Homeless do fantastic work supporting young people from homelessness towards confident, independent living.

We were hoping for a summer’s day, however in true British summertime, we had a day with torrential rain, hail and sunshine!

Each member of the team was assigned to various duties; some of us picked up the task of working outside to tidy up and weed the patio and paved areas and carry out some much-needed pruning.

This allowed one of the other members to utilise his pressure washer to give the paving a deep clean, after which the area looked amazing.

Other members of the team planted fruit and vegetables in the raised beds, whilst others carried out re-decoration of the ground floor rooms after which these looked refreshed and bright. Our property and maintenance partners, Jardak Group and Brewers Decorator Centres, kindly donated the paint.

We also had the opportunity to spend time with Maureen and Grace from Herts Young Homeless to understand more about the fantastic work they do. They kept us hydrated throughout the day.

Despite the challenges of the weather, the team never complained and the enthusiasm to get the work done remained throughout the day.

One day is never enough, more Harpenden colleagues are going to visit the Future Roots house in the coming weeks to complete the decorating, and we hope to go back later in the year to cut back the shrubs in the garden.

The Executive Team

View as a PDF

Take a look at the full Issue 8 of Mutual here.