A charity project that prepares people for work has scooped a massive cash boost in a TV competition.
Fresh Start at the Hart Neighbourhood Centre in Hook won £50,000 in ITV's The People's Millions.
The competition, funded by the TV firm and the Big Lottery Fund, let the public vote to decide what community project took home the cash.
The charity went head-to-head on November 24 against a Portsmouth primary school campaigning for a roof on their new extension.
Following the vote, ITV announced on Thursday last week that the Hook project had won the cash.
Centre manager Cheryl Edwards, said: “We all feel ecstatic at our win. It has made our year. We are so pleased to have got the money.”
Fresh Start is a catering project run by the neighbourhood centre. It gets 12 out of work people to prepare lunches for residents and visitors at a Sentinel sheltered-housing project in Rosefield Court, Hartley Wintney.
Cheryl Edwards said the funding boost would let them expand from 12 to 50 voluneers.
On the program people out of education and employment or with learning disabilities, aged from 14 years to the eldest at 56, are taught how to work in a kitchen by preparing lunches for residents at the sheltered housing centre.
Ms Edwards said: “We found that a number of people on work placements were not ready to be thrust into a busy work environment straight away and they dropped out.
“This project aims to be a gentler introduction allowing more vulnerable people to enter the world of work at their own pace.”
Since scooping their cash haul, Fresh Start plan to use the money to buy a refrigerated van to travel to other sheltered-housing projects at Bishopswood Court in Tadley and Oakridge Towers in Basingstoke.
Cheryl Edwards said she was surprised at the win because she expected a school in Portsmouth to poll a greater number of viewer’s votes.
Since ITV filmed the project two weeks ago, members of the centre have been campaigning hard to secure vital support.
She said: “Being a small area we thought we did not have a chance. It is a real example of community support, we campaigned in the community and received our votes through them.”
The program started last year as an employment program called Step-up. In January this year, Fresh Start launched with a £3,000 grant from Hart District Council and Sentinel Housing Association, to look after vulnerable adults on the program.
Ms Edwards said: “The amount, considering what we started on, will make a real difference for us and we are looking forward to the challenge ahead.”
