It’s an understatement to say that it’s been a difficult few weeks for everyone. When your life, work and freedoms are turned upside down in less than a month, it can make for a hard landing.
But humans adapt – that’s what we have always done. We build new ways of living, working and connecting. At PIF, we are thinking about all our supporters and what we can do for the industry that we represent, while also focusing on the young, vulnerable people that we want to help during this crisis.
For the industry I think it’s important that there’s a focus on well-being and mental health during this period. That applies to everyone in our industry, but in particular, for construction where the suicide rate is twice the level of the national suicide rate for men.
Construction workers are still on site which is a good thing because it allows the industry to continue, but it also puts them under extra pressures. In the spirit of collaboration in these tough times, we talked to Mates in Construction and wanted to highlight how it is looking at supporting construction workers on site. Social distancing is necessary, but it also challenges the delivery of services like counselling for those in need. You can find more details about what Mates in Construction is doing here.
For the young people that we build homes for, we are talking to all our charity partners that run PIF Houses. What has come up is that many of them are struggling with food shortages due to stockpiling and a fall in donations. So far PIF has built 85 bedrooms which last year gave shelter to 314 young people. We are looking at ways that we can continue to support these young people and will be asking for your support to do this.
