The Cardon Banfield Foundation
The Cardon Banfield Foundation, formally known as 'Hugo's Earthquake', was founded in 2015 by Hugo Sugg, who had experienced homelessness himself at the age of 18. Hugo first shared his experience of being homeless through a blog and since then have run many successful campaigns including getting a homeless forum for organisations in Worcester City, responding to a Parliament inquiry into homelessness, backing the successful Homelessness Reduction Bill and getting a Safeguarding Adults Review (SAR) into Cardon Banfield's death amongst 5 others individuals that died in Worcestershire since 2016.
The Cardon Banfield Foundation was named after Cardon Banfield, someone Hugo knew. Unfortunately on July 5th 2016 at the age of 74, Cardon’s body was found inside a tent on the banks of the River Severn next to Worcestershire Country Cricket Club by a warden of the club.
Worcestershire coroner Geraint Williams said that the body was so badly decomposed and partially mummified that it was initially impossible to identify him or ascertain the cause of death.
Since the tragic news came out in October 2016, Hugo wanted to dedicate his work to ensure that this doesn’t happen to anyone ever again. He says, “This is a failure in the system. Someone has died on our streets in a tent and got to the point of decomposing before someone found him.”
The Cardon Banfield Foundation exists to help prevent individuals from being homeless or prevent them from reaching a stage of crisis. They have a policy programme which focuses on strategy and support services for those who are homeless and vulnerable. They are also working towards setting up a network of experts in the local areas as part of their Satellite Hubs program, to ensure that their services are known and accessible across the whole of the UK.
As founders of Leiho, we feel it is important to get involved and take part in organisations that share the same values as us and have a story that drives making a difference. We are proud to be 2 out of 7 members of the Board of Trustees at Cardon Banfield Foundation.