The Connect Hub – First Year Impact Report

Over the past year, we’ve seen just how powerful this safe place has become: a place of safety, dignity and real connection.

As we reflect on everything we’ve learned and the many women we’ve walked alongside, we’re proud to share our first-year 2024/25 Impact Report, available to download below. It captures the voices, stories and progress of a truly remarkable year – one that has shaped us all.

Report – Connect Hub – Figures and Impact May 2024 – May 2025

Please see below for a message from the team.

If you are interested in supporting The Connect Hub, please email marie.mcshane@simonscotland.org

Reflecting on Our First Year Together

As we mark one year since the doors of the Connect Hub first opened, we – the staff team – want to take a moment to reflect, together, on what this space has become, what we’ve learned, and most importantly, who we’ve connected with.

From day one, our aim was simple: to create a safe, welcoming space for women experiencing homelessness and hardship. We worked alongside the women we were already supporting to co-create that space. Everything – from the layout and colours, to the furniture and the support programme – was shaped together, as one team, led by the voices and experiences of the women we support.

What we couldn’t have fully anticipated was just how deeply this space would come to matter – to the women who walk through our door, and to us.

The biggest learning in our first year has been this: when women are offered a space that is theirs – one that is trauma-informed, non-judgemental, and designed specifically with women in mind – they come. Many of the women we now know and support had never accessed city centre services before. The Connect Hub changed that. They told us they didn’t feel safe elsewhere. Here, they tell us they feel seen, respected, and safe.

In that, we’ve learned not only what’s possible, but what’s urgently needed. The Connect Hub is living proof of the importance of gender-specialist services – of the power of creating a space rooted in safety, hope, and dignity. It is not simply a service. It is a lifeline. It is community. It is connection.

To every woman who has walked through our door: thank you. You’ve shown us what strength looks like. You’ve reminded us every day why this work matters. And you’ve helped shape a space where others can follow, knowing they, too, will be welcome.

With hope, respect and solidarity,
The Connect Hub Team

Hannah Boyle, Brenna Kyle, Abby Rogers, Olivia Connor, Maeve Elrington and Alessia Fazzone