Video game studio Digital Extremes gives London homeless agency $200K
Article content
The Unity Project, a London agency that helps the homeless, received a $200,000 donation Thursday from London gaming studio Digital Extremes.
“This is by far and away the single largest corporation donation” the Unity Project has received in its 20-year history, said Silvia Langer, the agency’s development director.
“It feels like a fairy tale in terms of the size, the timing and the origins of it,” she said.
Langer said a number of the Unity Project’s major fundraising sources have been “crushed” during the coronarvirus pandemic, while the costs of providing emergency shelter and supportive housing have continued to climb. The Digital Extremes donation will help address that gap.
The Unity Project is currently using a hotel to house its clients. At the peak of the pandemic there were “70 or so” residents in hotel rooms, Langer said. She said, before the pandemic, the Unity Project would typically help about 600 people annually at its own facility.
“We are serving people who are seniors and people who are vulnerable to the extreme effects of the virus,” Langer said. “It is an extreme situation that requires an extreme amount of support.”
The gaming studio has a history of helping Langer’s agency, every Christmas arriving with a “truckload” of items to help fill 100 Santa gift sacks.
“When the pandemic struck, they got in touch with us to say, ‘Hey, what do you need?’ ” Langer said.
She compared the company to a knight in shining armour riding to the rescue through the fog of the pandemic.
“Community remains a key pillar to us at Digital Extremes . . . and given our global state, community is more important than ever,” Sheldon Carter, chief operating officer of Digital Extremes, said in a statement.
During the virtual TennoCon 2021, the biggest annual event put on by Digital Extremes for Warframe players, individual gamers also contributed $3,000, which was raised in about 10 minutes online.
“I think that the gaming community isn’t as well understood for that kind of generosity and they deserve that credit,” Langer said.
Twitter.com/DanatLFPress
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.