Who we are
We are committed to reducing deprivation and exclusion and to improving people’s well-being.
Our vision, mission and values
Our vision
Our vision is for people of all ages to be safe, building ambitions for the future and reaching towards their full potential.
Our mission
Humankind creates services and support to meet people’s complex health and social needs, helping them to build healthier lives that have meaning and value for themselves and their families. We support local people to create stronger, better-connected communities.
Our values
Honest: we are open and realistic, building trusted relationships in which we challenge, collaborate and change
Committed: we are passionate about being the best that we can be, and we do this by keeping people at the heart of everything that we do
Inventive: we are ambitious, drawing together skills and resources to innovate and adapt in determined pursuit of our mission.
Reducing deprivation and exclusion
Humankind is committed to reducing deprivation and exclusion and to improving people’s well being.
We have over 1,400 staff and around 100 volunteers providing services for over 76,000 people. Our specialist services include substance use, clinical, employment training and education, housing services, housing support and health, young people and families services.
We also offer affordable accommodation as a Registered Social Landlord via Humankind Housing and promote volunteering/employment opportunities through MoreTime UK, Humankind’s social enterprise.
Working Together strategy
Working Together is an approach to the way that we work to ensure that Humankind staff and volunteers collaborate effectively with people who have experience our services. By partnering in this way we can find solutions, share responsibilities and make decisions, we can continue to grow and ensure that everybody’s strengths and experiences are reflected. Working Together is at the core of who we are and how we operate as a charity and a community.
Impact Report 2019/20
Our latest downloadable report highlights our positive impact on the people and communities we serve and explains our key achievements, activity and growth.
About our History
Humankind was first listed as a registered charity and company in 1984. Back then, we were called Durham Training and Enterprise and focused primarily on vocational preparation programmes for the young, long-term unemployed in County Durham.
In the late 1980s, we began working with youth and adult offenders. This then led the development of innovative services for people who were homeless through the establishment of ‘accommodation registers’ and independent living support for care leavers.
In 1992, to reflect our broadening footprint, we changed our name to DISC – Developing Initiatives for Support in the Community. We continued to develop the range of spread of services that we deliver. However, in the summer of 2015 we embarked on an exercise with our staff and service users to explore our true values, and to develop a mission and vision for our organisation that really reflects what we are today. Almost three years later, that project evolved and culminated in a re-brand to Humankind.
In April, 2019, Humankind merged with London-based charity Blenheim CDP and in April, 2020, EDP joined us a subsidiary to form a new organisation with national reach, focused on addressing health and social inequalities across the country.
