Worksop: HOPE Chief Executive Officer speaks of his plans for the future

Alan described his first six months in the job as interesting and difficult because of the current economic climate.

He said: “We want to make sure we have a long successful future.”

The future plans for HOPE include developing another property in Queen Street, Worksop, opening a shop in Retford and they are also looking for properties in Retford which would be suitable to convert into flats.

Alan said: “The majority of our buildings are in Worksop and there are people who have to travel from Retford to Worksop.”

“The trustees have identified that we need to be identifying somewhere we can provide our service in Retford.”

“I know there are more people wanting to use the service than we can provide for which is the reason why we are looking to develop it.”

“We work with between 500 to 600 people a year and the majority of these people are homeless.”

“We aim to get them back into accommodation.”

“We have a hostel in Queen Street which has 14 beds and individuals can come and knock on the door and hopefully we will have a bed for them.”

“As the weather turns, this is when we get more people coming along,”

“The hostel is the only directly accessible hostel for people to just come along and knock on the door and get a bed in the county.”

“It is something that is needed.”