Case for support: A new home for Skylight Merseyside
The challenge
Crisis Skylight Merseyside has been working to end homelessness since its opening in 2011. At the Skylight, Crisis staff support people experiencing homelessness (our ‘members’) to secure a steady income and, ultimately, a safe and stable home through a combination of tailored one-to-one coaching, health and wellbeing events and skills development sessions.
Crisis members may be rough sleeping, sofa-surfing or in temporary and volatile accommodation, or at immediate risk of being pushed into homelessness.
The Skylight’s current building has been unfit for purpose for some time. Safety and operational issues include the absence of a working stairlift, limited meeting spaces and lack of exit routes in case of an emergency. Our members have a wide range of support needs and it is vital that our new Skylight building offers full wheelchair accessibility, safe evacuation routes and private meeting spaces to allow for sensitive conversations to take place in complete confidentiality.
Our response
We have identified a new, larger building in the centre of Liverpool which will solve these problems and improve the service we can offer to our members:
- A safe, psychologically informed space which will be an inspiring place for both members and staff;
- More space for private meetings with members, training sessions, member events and volunteering activities;
- Scope to share space with sector partners and visiting professionals (such as opticians and hairdressers), allowing us to offer a more holistic service for people experiencing homelessness;
- Being located on a busy road in Liverpool with ground floor access will present us with the opportunity to be a more visible presence in the city; we aim to become more of a community hub, with an expanded volunteering offer for corporate partners and the public, and fundraising partnerships with nearby faith groups, colleges and universities.
This is an exciting opportunity to transform our service offer in Liverpool and end homelessness for more people across Merseyside.
The new Skylight building will be at 114 Mount Pleasant and the lease is 10 years. It is in fair condition but needs lots of cosmetic work to make it a welcoming and inspiring space. We also need to do some minor remodelling to achieve the high standards of safety and accessibility that we want for our members.
Project timeline
We began the design process in January 2026, in consultation with Crisis staff, volunteers and members. The fitout is expected to take place in May and June, with the building opening to our members in July/August 2026 (this date may be subject to change).
The need
We have budgeted £250,000 for the project as a whole, of which £150,000 is available for the fit-out. This will allow us to complete minimal improvements, but it won’t get the interior of the building to the standard we would like – for this reason, we are seeking additional investment from Crisis supporters to help us make the new site a truly inspiring space in which we can end homelessness for more people.
Project funding from corporate partners and philanthropists will greatly enhance the environment within the Skylight centre, allowing us to install high quality furnishings (such as new carpets) in the reception area and also upgrade basic rooms to specialist spaces, such as:
• a treatment/therapy room for visiting professionals to deliver services
• a medium to large training/event space for large group activities
• a wellbeing-focused ‘quiet’ space for our members to relax and unwind
• a staff and volunteer wellbeing space to allow the team to decompress
• a Clothing and Living Materials (CALM) space for members to get essential items, including donated hygiene products, household items and footwear.
• We would also love to enhance digital inclusion for our members in the reception area by introducing some tablets: using the Google Lens functionality, these devices would allow members who speak English as their second or third language to view written documents, such as letters and forms, in their first language.
Your support
• £15,000 could contribute to refurbishing four private (1-1) meeting rooms.
• £25,000 could contribute to a treatment/therapy room, or a wellbeing space.
• £50,000 could help to transform the reception area into a welcoming and inclusive space for members, making their first experience of Crisis a positive start on their journey out of homelessness. This could include digital tablets to assist with translation.
• The fundraising team at Crisis will ensure you are kept up-to-date on the impact of your gift by sharing stories from the newly refurbished Skylight centre. As a funder, you will be invited to the Skylight launch event in summer 2026 and the centre’s annual carol service and Icebreaker swim in winter, giving you the opportunity to connect with Skylight staff and people with lived experience of homelessness.
• We can work together to ensure your support is recognised in a way that feels comfortable for you, whether that’s an acknowledgement in Crisis’ annual report, a named plaque on the wall of our new Skylight centre, or a social media post to publicly thank your company or foundation. If you feel strongly that you would like to fund a specific space, please let us know and we can discuss more details.
• From July onwards, we will also be looking for donations of clothing, non-perishable food, footwear, hygiene products and household items to kit out the CALM space for members. We will be looking for volunteers to support the new Skylight once it’s fully opened: please let us know if you would like to give your time.
Next steps
• We look forward to working together with you to co-create a new home for Crisis Skylight Merseyside. Please contact the Skylight Director Sharron McGuinness at Sharron.mcguinness@crisis.org.uk to discuss how you would like to support the project.
• On behalf of all of us at Crisis, thank you for standing side by side with people experiencing homelessness.
