For more than a decade the Brighton and Hove Wood Recycling Project has been collecting scrap wood from local builders, putting it to good use and selling it from the Circus Street Wood Store.

The Wood Recycling Project is now offering to help homeless people to get back on their feet.

During a 13-week course, the people taking part are trained in basic carpentry, learn a range of practical skills and at the end of it get a reference.

Richard Braid, 27, known as Braidy, has completely changed his life since starting the Work to Gain scheme.

He said: “I started with the Wood Project a year and a half ago.

“I was doing nothing, I was unemployed.

I had just moved into a hostel, but was still classed as homeless.

“I had been on the streets about three years before that.

“Now I live in a flat with my girlfriend and my daughter Madison.

“After doing the course I got a parttime job doing carpentry “I have just applied for a college course and the woodyard is helping me fund that. I start a two-year BTEC in September.

“It’s brought me out of my shell. I’m better at dealing with money.

“It has really turned my life around. I’ve gone from living on the streets to getting a job and having good friends and having some meaning in my life.

“I’ve got something to get up for in the morning now.”

After hearing about the project and having worked in construction, Braidy leapt at the chance to sign up.

He said: “It was a bit hard getting back into a routine.

“Everyone here is really good at showing you what to do.

Helping

“It’s not about making lots of money, it’s more about the environment and helping people.”

He now lives in Wellington Road, Brighton.

Brighton Wood Recycling Project managing director Richard Simpson said offering homeless people a helping hand matched the project’s founding ethos.

When the project started in 1998, it was staffed by volunteers but now employs six previously long-term unemployed staff.

The Work To Gain scheme takes this social message a step further.

Mr Simpson said: “The reasons the wood project was set up originally was to stop so much wood going to landfill and secondly to create jobs, particularly for disadvantaged people. It’s all about community.

“Stopping our communities getting clogged up with landfill and helping the community back onto their feet.”

Explaining how the course helps the homeless volunteers, Mr Simpson said: “Its about being able to get some key skills, getting involved, getting some experience and working as part of a close team.

“A lot of people who are homeless have been out of work so long and find they are marginalised by society.

“We have a policy of open arms, allowing people to get back into society.

“They are building their own bridges.

“Over the 13 weeks you can really see a change in them.

“The main thing is getting their confidence back. It is not just learning woodworking skills but getting them ready for future work.

“Even if they don’t want to do anything with carpentry in the future, they leave here with a reference. For our volunteers here who guide them through it, it’s not just a job, it’s kind of social work and helping each other.

“We’ve had people go on to do college courses and get steady paying jobs.

“Braidy was one of the first to get involved in the trial last year.

“We are looking to get five new people on to the project, specifically homeless people or people at housing trusts.”

To take part in the course, contact Ali Walmsley on 01273 600503.

If you are a builder interested in having the project collect your waste wood, contact Mr Simpson on 01273 570500 or look at its website www.woodrecycling.org.uk.