Why we exist

Our community is facing a wide range of complex social issues.

• There is a growing homeless crisis: rough sleeping is rising by 50% year on year.
• One in five children in Oxford city are living in poverty.
• There are high rates of re-offending - 61% of offenders in HMP Bullingdon will re-offend within one year.
• 30,000 people over 65 live alone.

Aspire is here to help our community's most marginalised people to overcome these issues and build their skills, qualifications, work experience and resilience to achieve their full potential. We don't offer short-term fixes: we work with people in need to help them not only find employment and secure housing, but to prevent them from ever becoming at risk of poverty or disadvantage again.

Our mission and values

Mission: To provide person-centred employment, work experience, training and support opportunities to empower people to unlock their potential to build their lives and futures.

Vision: Anyone, whatever their past, can achieve remarkable life change and re-connect with society.

Values: Ambitious. Supportive. Participatory. Inspiring. Reliable. Enterprising.

What makes us different? 

• Over 30% of Aspire's team have lived experience of homelessness, substance misuse or offending histories
• Our support workers have 145 collective years of experience supporting disadvantaged people with complex needs
• Aspire have achieved 328% growth in annual turnover since 2012-13
• Partnership working is at the heart of everything we do. We work with 31 organisations across the Thames Valley to reach those most in need.

You can help us to support a growing number of local people in urgent need by getting involved with Aspire's life-changing work.

Sources: Oxfordshire Uncovered Report; open.justice.gov.uk