Who are we?
We empower people facing homelessness, poverty and disadvantage to find employment and housing. In 2022-23, we engaged with over 1,800 people across our projects and programmes throughout Oxfordshire and the wider Thames Valley.
About Aspire
Established in 2001, Aspire has now been tackling the most complex social issues in Oxfordshire for 20 years. We support local people into and towards employment and housing, as the most powerful way to break the complex cycles of homelessness, re-offending and poverty.
The Future
Aspire has achieved over 300% growth since 2012/13. We are proud to work in partnership with 31 organisations across Oxfordshire and the Thames Valley to reach those most in need of our specialist support.
We are doing more than ever before to tackle the growing homelessness and housing crisis that our community is facing, with new projects and programmes including supported housing in central Oxford, Witney, and expansion of the Housing First model. At a time of uncertainty and a challenging external climate, this growth is testament to the drive and resilience of the Aspire team.
We are working to change and save lives.
Will you join us?
Why We Exist
Mission: To empower people to rebuild their lives and futures and realise their potential, by providing person-centred employment, enterprise development, housing and support opportunities.
Vision: To empower people to rebuild their lives and futures and realise their potential.
Values: Ambitious, Supportive, Person-centred, Inspiring, Reliable, Enterprising.
While Oxfordshire is one of the most affluent counties in England, 10 of its districts feature areas amongst 20% of the country’s most deprived (2019 Index of Multiple Deprivation). In these areas, people have a life expectancy 12 years shorter than those living in wealthier parts of the county, and round 1,800 households are made homeless in Oxfordshire each year. Find out more below:
Our Approach
What makes us different?
- Over 65% of Aspire’s team have lived experience of challenges that shape the psychological and trauma-informed guidance we provide to the individuals we support
- Our support workers have 145 collective years of experience supporting disadvantaged people with complex needs
- Partnership working is at the heart of everything we do
You can help us to support a growing number of local people in urgent need by getting involved with Aspire’s life-changing work.
Our Trusts & Foundations.
Aspire is delighted to work with a wide range of charitable trusts and foundations to fund our life-changing projects.
What we can offer:
- The opportunity to find inspirational projects to help us reach more marginalised local people in urgent need Examples include our innovative approaches to tackling the growing homelessness and housing crisis, expanding into new client groups or geographical areas
- Meetings with our Chief Executive and Project Managers to learn more about the projects and see first-hand the difference your trust or foundation’s support will make
- Regular, comprehensive and high quality reports
Our current supporters include:
To find out more about how we could work with your charitable trust or foundation, please contact Rachel Lane on 01865 204450 or email rachel.lane@aspireoxford.co.uk
Learn About Our Origins
Explore the full story of how Aspire Oxford came to be in our origins section.
It all started in the late 1990s, when two Oxford University graduates, Paul Harrod and Mark Richardson, established a door-to-door and catalogue sales business in their hometown of Bristol in 1998, with a social justice goal of offering paid employment to people experiencing homelessness.
Learn all about how we got to where we are today on our Origins page below.
