The Resapol Foundation is the charitable arm of Resapol, that aims to make a positive and lasting difference to people’s lives by awarding donations to individuals, communities, organisations and charities. Resapol’s London depot Ambassador, Business Development Manager Paulo Manhica, chose to nominate Verral Paul-Walcott for support by the Resapol Foundation.
Verral Paul-Walcott is a one-man army who is making a massive impact for those that are homeless or on the poverty line. With little to no funding, or help from anyone, Verral has managed to introduce and implement a series of inspirational initiatives, providing support and help to those most vulnerable.
Last year Verral had a team of 39 members, which has now quickly grown to a total of 849. The team venture out daily to assist the most vulnerable local communities by providing non-essential items such as socks, toothpaste, masks, coats, and much more! The team also send care packs across England with over 500 individual packs shipped to date. During the Christmas period Verral makes use of his huge social media following to his advantage by providing an updated Amazon wish list, picking suitable Christmas presents below the value of £10 and allowing his followers to purchase them. These are then provided to the vulnerable local communities; this year there has been over 400 gifts purchased with the initiative bringing national coverage from the BBC.
Another of Verral’s initiatives is now known as the ‘tab system’; those that are homeless or on the poverty line often have no choice but to utilise local food banks, which often provide simple sandwiches and cold foods. Verral set up the tab system in various local restaurants, allowing people to leave money behind the tills in order to allow those less fortunate to be able to order warm meals on demand.
Through various outreach opportunities, and whilst working directly with the homeless and vulnerable, Verral also stumbled upon people within the local community who struggled to purchase School uniforms for their children, with a typical school blazer costing upwards of £130. Thus, “Picnic in the Park” was born; an event which helped to support people struggling by directly raising money towards the cost of school uniforms.
All of the work Verral has been doing within the community has not gone unnoticed. In September 2022 he was given the BBC Radio London Highly Commended ‘Made a Difference Award’, Volunteer Award – this is awarded to individuals who make a real difference to the community by giving up their time voluntarily to help out a charity or good cause.
Paulo commented on why he nominated Veral, “Seeing people I know, do so much for the community makes me proud. I have also assisted Veral’s movement myself and seen the positive impact it has had on people who are homeless or struggling. Seeing the movement grow from Strength to Strength and to be able to reach not only homeless people, but now Domestic Violence Victims and Struggling families. It highlights a real issue we face in London with Poverty which I feel if people like Verral didn’t do what they would do, nobody else would do it! It also opens everyone’s eyes to the wider issue that more needs to be done right from the top. Verral works full time, runs a household and family and does this because he wants to.”
On 21st September Paulo, alongside Resapol Sales Director Daniel Gay, presented Verral with a cheque from the Resapol Foundation for £1,000. Verral has no direct funding and therefore relies heavily on donations and support.
“It’s really appreciated that you have supported a project like this and shows your values as a company. The money will be used to improve our Van which we were able to source last year through Donations. This van has facilities inside which are able to provide me adequate services to help homeless people on a wider scale, taps have just been installed in this van to provide clean water and much more improvements to be given further to the Van so this money kindly given to me by the Resapol foundation will help me out A LOT. We will also be using this towards our bike service for homeless runs.”
— Verral Paul-Walcott
