Kind-hearted staff from a Burton home improvement store have rolled up their sleeves to revamp a centre for the homeless and drug and alcohol addicts.

Employees from the B&Q store in Wellington Road and the one in Osmaston Park Road in Derby joined forces to revamp the charity-run Betel-Derby centre, which helps men, women and families affected by homelessness and addiction.

As part of B&Q's aim to 'make home improvement accessible for all', staff redecorated all communal areas in the Etwall centre, including the kitchen, dining room and relaxation room for free using materials from the stores.

Colleagues Rich Knight and David Tibbatt discussing the paintwork in the Canteen with Karen Shirazi from Betel
Colleagues Rich Knight and David Tibbatt discussing the paintwork in the Canteen with Karen Shirazi from Betel

After spending several days with the charity and some of its service users, the B&Q team then decided to extend their help by donating bags of food for centre users.

Simon Twigg, store manager at B&Q Burton, said: "It was great to go into the charity and be able to deliver them with physical results as well as give out advice. It has been incredible to work within our community and B&Q Burton sees the local community like our family. It is nice to give back."

Karen Shirazi, from Betel UK, said: "The people-power that B&Q provided was more than we could have asked for. Having a team in to repaint our rooms would usually have huge expenses attached to it.

"It's great seeing the smiles on our residents' and their families' faces as they appreciate what a great job's been done sprucing up these important spaces. B&Q really helped us out with something we may otherwise have not been able to do and, for that, we're so grateful."

Through assigning personal mentors and offering wellbeing and work schemes to users, Betel works

Betel-Derby is one of eight community project partnerships that tB&q has got involved in. B&Q is also an official partner of the housing and homeless charity Shelter.

Betel helps to improve lives by assigning personal mentors and offering wellbeing and work schemes to users affected by homelessness and addiction.