About Us

Luton Foyer is operated by the Bedfordshire John Howard Society (BJHS), a crime prevention charity. It has been open since 1996 and is designed to be a “one stop shop” where clients can seek help and support with a range of problems.

BJHS started out as the Bedfordshire Discharged Prisoners’ Aid Society and was formed on 6^th January 1874. It’s aim was to assist prisoners on their discharge and to enable them to find employment. The rules of the Society were to provide:

Boys and girls with places in homes, situations with respectable tradesmen or berths for long sea voyages
Men and women with suitable lodgings, temporary employment, tools and stock in trade: clothing or small money advances for present maintenance, or assistance in returning to their homes
Assistance towards emigration for boys and men
A subsequent and friendly supervision in all cases

Mr Samuel Whitbread was the Vice President of the Society when it was formed and the association with the Whitbread family has continued throughout its history, right though to today, as the current Sir Samuel Whitbread is the President of BJHS.

Since then, the Society has evolved to meet the changing client needs and to achieve its own aim of “crime prevention”. In the 1980s it worked in Luton and the surrounding areas to improve the standards and choice of accommodation for prisoners on their release.

The services at the Foyer are now available to everyone in the community, not just prisoners, and are still delivered in a “friendly” manner as mentioned in the original aims. It helps individuals to take control of their lives and to progress from crisis to stability, from homelessness to stable housing, from debts to financial planning and from unemployment to learning and having a job.