Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

My name is Eddie, I run a charity called TransformUK and I’m a member of the church family at Shoreditch Tabernacle in East London. I’ve always been involved in setting up projects and helping develop charities, and I’m passionate about showing the love of Jesus to those in my community, through real practical care and support. Often this means challenging Christians and church communities to reach out to those in need, following Jesus’ example of loving the poor and needy, and helping show love to some of the most vulnerable in our society.

Shoreditch Tab and TransformUK have been working closely together since 2016 through a partnership called ‘TransformShoreditch’, and together we have helped support thousands of local people through a range of projects working with the homeless, refugees and asylum seekers, disadvantaged families and young people who are at risk, particularly from criminal exploitation. Though we are two distinct entities, we find ways to work together to provide services to the local community, which has meant we have reached many people who need support but wouldn’t necessarily engage with a church and often are not engaging or being supported by the stretched statutory services in our society.

Through the partnership we want to continue to provide help to those who need it, whether that’s through supporting children and families, giving help for young people at risk of becoming involved with gangs, or through supporting asylum seekers. We are channeling the love that we have been shown by Christ, trying to help others experience the love of God through practical support shown by us.

The most recent project has been to open a TransformShoreditch children’s home, to support vulnerable girls in our community who do not have a safe home to live in and are often at huge risk from exploitation and in great need of experiencing genuine love and care.

Why did Shoreditch Tabernacle decide to get this mortgage?

We have realised through our work that there is a desperate need for children’s homes across the UK and the senior pastor at Shoreditch Tab has a strong heart for this, as she herself spent some time in children’s homes as a teenager, where she unfortunately had a very negative experience (which sadly is very common).

There aren’t enough homes, many of the ones that are open often don’t provide the love and care that vulnerable children need, and surpluses from the statutory funding are often taken out for shareholders. We could see that there was a huge need, but many grassroots charities don’t have the assets or resources needed to undertake a project of this size. Shoreditch Tab took out this mortgage with Kingdom Bank to provide funds to resource the refurbishment and opening of one of their properties into a children’s home, which is a huge blessing.

One of the barriers faced when trying to open a children’s home is finding a landlord who will give a long-term lease, so Shoreditch Tab’s decision to provide one of its properties on a long-term basis to be used as a children’s home has been key to enabling us to launch this project. As the church has been serving the local community for over 190 years and has strong links within the local community, there are many church members who are longstanding local residents which again is perfect for ensuring the home and the children it supports are well connected with the local community.

The Tab centre, where TransformShoreditch runs most of its projects, will also be a space where these young people and others we support can access practical support, and be involved in helping to run new projects for those in need. As well as providing practical and emotional support the partnership also enables us to make spiritual support available to the girls who want this. This spiritual support is not a condition of receiving care from us, but an added value provided for those who are seeking it. We find that people see a difference in the way that we support them, because everything we are doing is flowing from our experience of God’s unconditional love, and over the years people receiving our support (from different faiths or none) have always fed back that they have appreciated the genuine love at the heart of what we do – available for everyone in need no matter what their background or beliefs.

What difference does this property make?

This property allows us to launch the children’s home, which will transform the lives of vulnerable girls who are at risk of exploitation. It helps to provide safety and gives the girls the opportunity to be part of a supportive local community.

This property not only helps to change the lives of people in this home, but it also plays a part in our wider vision of setting up more children’s homes. The surplus funds made through this will be reinvested into developing our work with the vulnerable in our community, as well as working towards opening another home soon. So this helps us to grow into the future, hopefully meaning we can provide more help for more people.

How were Kingdom Bank able to help?

Working with Kingdom Bank has felt like a real partnership: the ethos, approach and relationship with staff has been excellent. The journey has been really positive. But aside from that, purely from a business point of view, working with Kingdom Bank made sense. Securing this type of loan elsewhere was proving to be completely unaffordable because of the length of mortgage required and other obstacles, so Kingdom Bank was our most viable and affordable option in taking our vision forward.

We honestly have only been able to open this home because Kingdom Bank stepped up and provided the loan. It is amazing and important for others to know that this project wasn’t enabled by normal secular banks or lenders (despite the huge need in our society for new children’s homes), but instead this has only been made possible by an unashamedly Christian bank who are driven by their faith in Jesus and putting that faith into practice. We will be shouting about Kingdom Bank from the rooftops once we open and we hope to continue this relationship as we grow and hopefully open many more children’s homes across London and the UK.