We are a UK based charity supporting people affected by homelessness

Our mission is to work with others to end homelessness. For us this means supporting those affected to move from surviving to thriving in life, not only putting a roof over somebody’s head.

There are close to 300,000 people affected by homelessness in England alone. The majority are families living in temporary accommodation. In London 1 in every 53 people are homeless. Our focus is on supporting those who face the toughest form of homelessness; street homelessness.

Under One Sky evolved from a one-off Christmas outreach event organised by founder Mikkel Juel Iversen in 2012. Between 2012-2019 Under One Sky was a “friends and family” initiative that undertook a 3-4 outreach events each winter. In 2018 Under One Sky incorporated as non-profit company as both the volunteer base and private donations continued to grow. In 2021 Under One Sky became a C.I.C. (Community Interest Company). In 2022 the organisation converted from a C.I.C. into a CIO (registered charity).

The transformation of Under One Sky from a winter outreach pop-up project to a 24/7 organisation was brought about by the pandemic. During the lockdowns Under One Sky’s teams operated daily across Central London serving up to 600 people per day. The moment of transformation was captured by this article in The Guardian.

We call our street outreach events Skywalks. At each event a designated team led by a team leader covers a specific geographical area by foot and serves anywhere from 20 to 100+ homeless friends.

We work with other charities, social enterprises, companies and institutions to have the biggest possible impact. Each organisation has one or more pieces of the solution and only by collaborating can we make each piece count fully.
A key priority for Under One Sky is to build community and engage that community in the cause. Social issues are shared issues in society and we need a wide range of capabilities to develop effective solutions. Importantly we need individuals and organisations to invest themselves emotionally in the issue.

To date 100% of private donations have been spent directly on delivering the services we provide to our homeless friends. Costs directly related to service delivery account for more than 80% of total costs (based on 2022 figures).

Each week we purchase supplies for food, beverages and clothing and on one-off items such as mobile phones, glasses, emergency hostel stays and travel tickets to reconnect homeless friends with their families.

We do get certain supplies donated and constantly work to get more of our needs covered through supplies donations. To date we have distributed more than 2.5 million items most of which were purchased.

We've been informed that a website purporting to provide information for people affected by homelessness made an allegation in 2020, without any evidence, that donations amounting for more than £250,000 to Under One Sky had gone into the bank account of our founder and had not been used for the purposes of the organisation. This is completely untrue. We can assure our homeless friends and donors that every single penny of every donation to Under One Sky goes into the Under One Sky bank account, and is then used to fund our activities. As part of the charity registration process the Charity Commission also conducted a thorough review of our financial history. If you have any questions about this or other unjustified allegations, please contact us at contact@underoneskytogether.com.

To realise our mission to end homelessness our plans are centred around 3 priority areas:
1) Shift how the public relates to homelessness to build wide support to end it.
2) Grow and engage local and global communities to become actively involved in the cause.
3) Change lives by developing solutions that effectively deliver transition from surviving in isolation to thriving in society.

One of our priorities at Under One Sky is giving children and young people opportunities to demonstrate their compassion, whilst growing their skills and confidence. We are incredibly proud of our ‘Bright Stars’.

I’m Still Here is a feature documentary shot in London during the first 12 months of the Covid pandemic, where hundreds of people were left “locked out” on the streets.