About us

Our story

It all started with our founder Mick. During his time in employment, he would wander around after his shift, feeding members of the homeless and addiction communities living in and around central Leeds, giving homeless people a much needed human connection.  He found a lot of these communities would be huddled together outside the cities big churches. 

Mick acknowledges that he doesn’t come from a supported housing or welfare background, he just knew he wanted to make a change, no matter how small or large, but make a positive change to the Leeds homeless and addiction community.  Following a serious accident at work, our founder had time to reflect on his own life, particularly his professional life. He had always thought he could do more than simply handing out sandwiches and have a chat in the doorway of a church.  From this, Angels of the Church Housing Association was born. 

Mick’s goal was to establish a supported housing association, welcome his first tenants and become recognised by referral partners and agencies across Leeds. Angels of the Church Housing Association currently works with Forward Leeds, Humankind, The Probation Service, Engage Leeds and New Wortley Offenders Support and we are always looking for opportunities to expand our working relationships. 

We welcomed our very first tenant in July 2018 and now house 23 tenants across properties in East Leeds. 

Mick, recognising that he wasn’t capable of delivering the service on his own, wanted to establish a small but trusted team to bring his hopes for the business to a reality, the first appointment was a Key Support Worker in August 2018. Whilst the team remains small, we now have the foundations on which to continue to build and grow Angels of the Church Housing Association to be a small but hugely important service provider in Leeds. 

The ultimate aim and social mission of Angels of the Church Housing Association is to provide support by way of housing, social care, mental health care, addiction support whilst working to eradicate homelessness and social isolation in the city. 

We will spend 2019 strengthening our capabilities and expertise as well as our reputation amongst our supported housing peers and the many referral streams available throughout Leeds.

We have ambitious plans to open a Day Centre with a Community Cafe in East Leeds, giving service users a safe space to visit to eat, wash their clothes, get advice, seek support from external parties, gain social inclusion, and attend employability and skills training.  Whilst we initially see this been used as a central point of contact for our tenants, we also see residents of the wider East Leeds community using the centre.    

We appreciate East Leeds has a wealth of public services, including a library, community centres, support projects and welfare led support, we see ourselves sitting alongside existing public services, and enhancing the offer available in East Leeds rather than taking anything away from the communities.  We know that collaboration and partnership working will allow us to deliver effective supported housing services and solutions. 

Our team

Mick Sewards, Director

Mick is the reason Angels of the Church Housing Association exists. It was his desire to do more for the most vulnerable people in our city that saw AOTCHA come to life. Mick oversees the team, our compliance & regulations, all maintenance requirements and anything else that crops up. When a tenant joins our association, they will likely meet Mick on their first day to be handed keys and their licence agreement and introduced to the property and surrounding tenants.

When he’s not at work, you’ll find him cooking up big feasts for his family.

Fred, Housing Manager

Fred has worked as a support worker for the last 10 Years gaining expert knowledge working with other agencies like the Probation services, Community mental health teams, he has worked with many adults with complex needs, a the last place of work he started as a support worker, working up to a manager and eventually  ran a team of 12 support workers, he has worked  one to one with clients to help resolve  their complex problems, he wanted a fresh start and decided  to join AOTC for new challenges with a new infant company and to use his vast experience to develop AOTC  working alongside myself.

Fred is a strong family man and in his spare time loves to spend this with his young family.

Aky, Support worker

Aky has worked in the health and social care sector over the past four years and has gained experience, skills and knowledge from varying support roles. Aky has worked in supported living and residential settings as well as in rehabilitation and supporting high-risk individuals with behaviours that challenge and complex care needs. Aky has now turned his focus to a new role as a housing support officer. He will bring his valuable experience from his previous roles and gain new skills within housing support. Aky believes AOTC has the resources and network connections to expand as an organisation and believes it has the potential to help him achieve his career goals. Aky is looking forward to using his experience to support and encourage individuals to build life skills that will help them to move on and achieve their own goals for the future.

Aky has an interest in exploring new builds in his spare time and likes discovering new ideas to inspire his own renovation.

Stephen, Support worker

Since 2011 Stephen has worked in health care and social care working as deputy manager for 2 years as senior support worker, achieving NVQ level 2 and 3, risk assessment training, adult safeguarding, before 2011 he was doing work like warehouse operative and customer service assistant, when he decided to go for a total change, which was to go into health and social care which he now knows was the right move for him to do, he enjoys every day as a new challenge and to look back on who he has been able to help and change their lives around.

Some words from our partners