The Shelter Season
Season 8 got off to a good start in November with some old and some new churches participating. We were particularly grateful to Kings Cross Methodists who hosted 2 shelters a week. Guests went to CRISIS between 23rd and 30th December and then came back to us for the start of new season – we have eight participating churches from January to March.
Extracts from the latest report to the Trustees :
“Volunteers
The problems from the past regarding lack of volunteers is now more than resolved, sometimes we just have too many and can’t guarantee a shift every week – not a bad problem to have. Our volunteers come from all walks of life as do our guests and this makes the nights more of a community rather than an ‘us and them’ situation.
Other churches/community involvement
We have written to all churches in Camden who are on the margins of supporting our work or not involved at all. The letter aimed to raise awareness and explain various ways they could support us. The response was wonderful, with several responding by offering funds, volunteers and prayer for the guests and shelters.
La Swap students will again be volunteering after Christmas. The Project Manager has provided talks at school assemblies (terrifying but good) raising awareness and encouraging involvement.
A group of schools who taken part in itzvah Day (a Jewish giving day) collected toiletries for our guests, they gave much more than expected and several large boxes of soap, shampoo, creams, razors, toothbrushes etc., were collected which will keep some of the shelters going for the season and will save quite a lot of money. We gave the surplus to a local women’s charity
The lunch time club at King’s Cross is well attended by guests past and present and is a perfect time to catch up with each other.
Support to other charities/shelters
There has been a increase of shelters new and old, wanting our support and advice. We give this freely but prioritize our work at C4WS; any requests that can’t be met are passed on to other organisations. We don’t advertise the support we give to other shelter, most come via word of mouth, which really goes to show the reputation we have in this sector.
Statistics
In November we received 73 phone calls, accepted 38 guests to the shelter and 28 guests accessed a bed space. Of these 28 guests, 9 were supported in accessing accommodation, 13 people are still with us from November, 2 people disengaged, 1 person was banned and 3 people could not keep to the rules and/or couldn’t adhere to the ethos of C4WS.
Support needs
Once again this season, we have seen a variety of support needs and 5 guests with multiple support needs. One of the biggest needs has been the guests wanting to improve their English. This year, for the first time, we have been able to respond to this pressing need by offering English classes of our own which occur every Wednesday morning at Kings Cross Methodist Church and are taught by our volunteer English teacher, Graham Wright. There has been a very positive response to this so far from our guests and we have had referrals from neighbouring homelessness organisations that appreciate the unique benefit of free English classes for those who need them most. We have also seen some guests with mental health issues ranging from relatively mild to quite high. We have been working closely with FOCUS mental health team to best support guests with mental health issues and this has proved very successful.
C4WS Homeless Project
Jamie Nalton and Amanda Pickering