I thought I would set the record straight about the ‘returning of the cheque’ by Kervin Julien
The truth is that Kervin Julien www.anesis.org.uk and all the people I met at Northpoint Church continue to do amazing work and I felt very privileged to have found them all when I went undercover looking for good causes to help.
From the programme you will see that my gift of £15,000 was to be used towards a Rehab Centre, this had been a vision of Kervin’s for some time.
Kervin signed the ‘Gift Agreement’ supplied by the television company which stipulates what the gift is to be used for and that “…it should not be applied in any other way”
Kervin emailed me on 14th February detailing our plans for the rehab centre we jointly chose to call Second Chance. He then subsequently announced this to several hundred people at the Pride of Coventry Awards on 18th February, 2011 where we both publicly appealed for any further funding from private investors and local enterprise.
The Coventry Telegraph 1st March.
“Kervin has vowed to use the cash to realise his dream of opening a rehabilitation centre for drug addicts in Coventry…”
We were both incredibly excited and passionate about working on this project together.
Kervin expressed even more commitment to the project when he telephoned me several weeks ago to say that he and his wife were going to sell their family home. This was to help raise further funds he needed in order to buy a building for the Rehab Centre (rather than rent).
I was totally blown away and moved by his absolute commitment to the project and re-iterated to him that as soon as he needed the money to let me know. He also needed to raise further funds which were to come in from the Church and (we hoped) private enterprise. We have always been fully aware that government funding was highly unlikely.
As reported on 23rd May
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-13504097
And in the Coventry Telegraph on 23rd May
“Born-again Christian Kervin will use the money towards buying the rehab centre and installing appropriate facilities. Running the venture will be part-funded by his church, Northpoint Church in Bell Green. He is now looking at an eight-bed property with rooms on the side of the building which allow addicts to go through their “rattle” in isolation while getting off drugs”
At all times I have been totally committed and aware that Second Chance was a church based project.
Despite all the announcements and vows, Kervin on 2 occasions asked if he could use the money for different reasons and I explained my reasons why not.
In December 2010, he requested a burger van and I explained that I do not believe in sustaining street living with a burger van and that we had agreed we want to be getting people ‘off’ the streets into our Rehab Centre.
On Thursday, 16th June I had another call from Kervin requesting the money went into the Church fund. I reiterated to him what I had always stated and that is that I did not want the money to get ‘lost’ in the Church’s ‘pot’. I reminded him of our commitment to the project Second Chance and we agreed I would visit him in July to ‘see where we were at’
You could have knocked me over with a feather when I received a call from the Coventry Telegraph on Monday 20th June at 15.04 and was asked for my comments on the piece they were running the next day about Kervin Julien returning my cheque because I had “vetoed all projects he wanted the money to be spent on because they are linked to Northpoint Church in Bell Green”
To say that I have been gutted by his words and actions is an understatement. It was a genuine heartfelt gift towards a project we had both become so passionate about. I have been consistently, passionately and excitedly committed to what we had agreed and the vows he has publicly made so many times.
For me this was far more than just the money, I wanted to actively get involved and help empower as many as possible who came to “Second Chance”, whatever their faith
I have never waivered from the truth, all of which is documented as above and signed by Kervin Julien himself.