Our Model

The holistic model: moving away from food parcels to long lasting change

When we first began serving one of the most deprived boroughs in the country, Tower Hamlets, we were operating as a food bank. However, we quickly realised the traditional food bank model did not work to tackle the real reasons driving crises or poverty.

We found that the problem wasn’t accessing food at all; the main problem was receiving inadequate income or no income in several instances. We met people experiencing benefit administration errors that resulted in delayed payments, unemployment when they had a drive and desire to work, mental health struggles and many other roadblocks. People were facing multiple barriers preventing them from thriving.

How we pivoted our service

We believe no one should face a crisis alone. We give person-centric, rapid support to clients who have recently experienced a crisis in order to get their lives back on track as quickly as possible. That often means stopping evictions for people who are being wrongly evicted, supporting domestic abuse victims or reclaiming benefits for vulnerable individuals and families who are entitled to them.

When we closed our food bank we created a holistic model that tackles poverty, targeting households and helping to reinstate income but also address the underlying crisis so we could provide long-term solutions for people.
Since switching our model from just offering food, we now design and deliver new and innovative ways to tackle crisis and social injustice that influence how the UK responds to poverty, focusing on solving the driving causes of crisis and poverty for the people referred to us.

What makes us different

We deliver wraparound support in the form of expert welfare rights advice and advocacy to lift households out of poverty.

People accessing our services are from diverse backgrounds, including BAME, low-income white households, family breakdown, people with disabilities and people facing extreme isolation and mental health issues. Life can take many U-turns and we are all at risk of ending in a vulnerable position.

Our front-line multidisciplinary team maps the underlying issues of each household and comes up with a range of solutions to tackle the presenting crisis and the underlying root causes. Our model now consists of expert advice delivered in the community.

Our goal is to restore households, so people can have agency and lead independent lives and our deep insights enable us to shine a light on where the system is failing the most vulnerable in society.

Each client who we work with gets dedicated, end-to-end support until they are out of the crisis they are facing. We get to the bottom of the problem so the same issues don’t return and we’re prepared to ask uncomfortable questions in order to help get these individuals back to a more comfortable life.

We don’t dust over problems and move along. We help to put an end to the crisis and create permanent change.

Action driven by love

At First Love Foundation, we love first – and love is at the very centre of every action we take. We show compassion to every individual we meet, show empathy where there may not have been empathy previously.

For us it’s about listening, empowering, putting ourselves in their shoes and helping them to re-build their confidence so they can take steps towards living independently again.

We help hundreds of people every month to turn their lives around. We have more than 10 years’ experience in putting an end to the crisis. And the most beautiful thing about it is our model works.