Councillor Lynda Thorne who is part of the team who launched the Give DIFFerently campaign has defended it.
The Give DIFFerently campaign is a contactless payment donation scheme for the homeless in Cardiff. It was launched last April.
Members of the public could use a contactless payment station on the Hayes to donate money to homeless charities.
Earlier this week it was revealed that the campaign had cost £12,000 to set up but has so far raised less than £10,000 – more than half of which came from Cardiff Council.
Councillor Lynda Thorne, who is part of the team that launched the campaign, has been defending it. She says ” The aim behind it is brilliant but the time scale of the roll out is the problem and the fact there has only been one place for people to give and for such a short period of time and so the roll out time scale has been far too long”.
She says she hopes it will become a more popular platform to donate as the second part of the campaign includes a website that people can access to find out what the money they have donated has been spent on.
But the campaign has been criticised by the boss of another homeless charity in Cardiff.
Richard Edwards, who is the Chief Executive of the Huggard Centre, said “The Give DIFFerently campaign has been very important, however, in isolation it hasn’t had the impact that it could have if it was part of a wider strategy.
“The the aim of this campaign was to encourage members of the public to help people coming out of homelessness and there are a number of people that have benefited from it but on its own it can’t be the solution to the homelessness that people see on the street.”
