Charities

BACKUP provides opportunities for young people who are homeless to be safe, stable and develop skills for independence.

They deliver a range of services that include accommodation, support, advice and guidance with 2 aims:

Preventing homelessness

Increasing independent living skills

In doing so they see improvements in health and well-being, reduction in risk of harm, improvements in finances, increase in self-confidence, improvements in health both physical and mental, less exploitation, reduction in use of drugs or alcohol amongst other things.

Maura Jackson, CEO of BACKUP, won the Inspirational Woman of the Year award at the 2019 Enterprise Vision Awards. By applying her business acumen to the charity, she has been able to increase their annual turnover to more than £2.8m without affecting the charity's core values.

This year, Maura was a speaker at the 2020 International Women's Day - Lancashire event. Her talk about life, work and love helped raise awareness of the charity and their strive towards ending homelessness. £400 was raised on the day.