Phone: 07429 681278 | Charity No: 1196690 | Email: enquiries@pifgiftvouchers.org
About the scheme
Empowering Choice, Restoring Dignity.
We provide a secure, digital way for you to help people in crisis buy the essentials they actually need—from food and toiletries to clothing.
Mission Statement
“This voucher scheme, which is now an evoucher registered charity, was created to help people in need, either directly or through organisations that support people, to buy food, groceries, toiletries, household items/pet food, non-alcoholic drink and children’s clothing/baby food from high street shops like Aldi, Asda, Greggs, Primark, etc. We can only operate through the kind donations from our supporters via Justgiving, Easyfundraising and most recently, £1000 from the Movement for good (through the Benefact Trust). We will help all sorts of people including woman’s refuge, homeless, ex-offenders, disability groups, etc
I currently work with organisations from Bournemouth, Bedford, Leicestershire, Shrewsbury and Manchester, but happy to take requests from anywhere in the UK.”
About the project
My name is Theresa, a Birmingham lass at heart but lived in Cambridge for about 20 years.
I started, what was then Pay it Forward gift vouchers in July 2018 after seeing homeless people on the streets of Cambridge, not wanting to give them money or buy them a sandwich in case they had a food intolerance, were vegetarian or some other dietary restriction.
I approached the Black Cat café on Mill Road and they were interested in the idea. But I didn’t know how would I do it.
Azad, the owner came up with the idea of a gift voucher and the project was born…
I then felt that I wanted to avoid both people in need and staff being embarrassed about being declined if the café had no vouchers available, so I approached Wintercomfort about them accepting and distributing vouchers. They were happy to and put me in touch with James McWilliams from Cambridge City Council who agreed to fund the printing of the vouchers for shops and cafes in Cambridge… With this funding in place it meant I could invite more shops and cafes to join…
I then felt that I needed to track each voucher from its point of sale through supporting organisations (if applicable) and back to the shop/café it was purchased from.
Felix Fearnley of The Village Common created a tracking system. This system is fundamental in the running of the scheme. However, it still needs a bit or work doing to make it the way I want it.
Sadly I couldn’t get the tracking system to work… Then Covid hit and the scheme almost stopped but then I found www.evouchers.com and the scheme was reborn to The Pay it Forward Voucher Scheme…. I have partnered with organisations from across the UK and always looking to help more.
Printing of the vouchers in Cambridge was funded by Cambridge City Council .
Street Aid (part of Cambridge City Council) supports the homeless in Cambridge. https://www.cambscf.org.uk/cambridge-street-aid
With financial banking from the team behind Street Aid I was able to get the vouchers printed at no cost to the businesses, and to communicate a source of help to the homeless by adding the details to the back about Street Aid.
PechaKucha’s 20×20 presentation format shows your 20 chosen images, each for 20 seconds. In other words, you’ve got 400 seconds to tell your story, with visuals guiding the way. PechaKucha means “chit chat” in Japanese. This creative outlet began as night time get-togethers in Tokyo in 2003 by two renowned architects.
I presented a slideshow about my vouchers at a Pechakucha evening.
Timeline
Founded by Theresa Feetenby in Cambridge. Inspired by a simple encounter, the goal was to create a way for people to give to the homeless with dignity and choice.
2019
The Inspiration
Black Cat Cafe funded the first vouchers
In response to COVID-19, we pivoted to digital vouchers, ensuring support could reach people via SMS and email instantly. and opened it up to people in in general
2020
Digital shift
We officially became a Registered Charity (CIO) on Nov 19, 2021 (RCN: 1196690), cementing our national mission.
our partners to date
2019
The Inspiration