Latest Night Shelter News!

While we may have closed for the winter back in March, there has certainly been lots happening in the life of the night shelter. Perhaps the biggest piece of news comes in the form of a new building, 11 Chapel Lane, that we will be using as our permanent base from July 2018 onwards.

The building itself belongs to Swan Bank Church, and in collaboration with the Number 11 project we have renovated it over the past few months to create a welcoming and relaxing space. Number 11 will be using the downstairs to offer holistic support for those in need within our city, while the night shelter will be using the upstairs part of the building.

We have 8 sleeping pods that our guests will be able to use (but we still need to buy the beds and mattresses – if you’d like to support us in this way, please follow the link to our gofundme page > https://www.gofundme.com/stoke-night-shelter-needs-beds ) as well as kitchen and shower facilities. Having a permanent base will help us to better support  our guests as we will have all of our resources in one place.

We are hosting our first open day to officially ‘open’ the building on Saturday 7th July from 12.30pm and everyone is welcome to come along and have a look around, as well as finding out what the night shelter is and how it works! There will be refreshments available throughout along with a cake sale and raffle. RSVP on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/events/351335258725568/ – so we know how much cake to make!

 

The 2017/2018 Winter Round Up!

The 2017/2018 winter was perhaps the busiest and coldest winter yet in the life of the winter night shelter. One of our coordinators, Jackie, summarises the help we were able to provide here:

“Apart from a couple of Sundays in February,. we were able to open every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. In total. we have given shelter to 70 guests, plus one dog! Some stayed just for one night or one weekend, whilst a few have been with us for a number of weekends.Of those guests, 5 have moved out of the area, 10 have gained a hostel place, 3 have found privately rented accomodation, one has just been accepted for supported housing one has moved to The Lyme Trust and one to the YMCA. We know that a few are ‘sofa surfing’ (not as nice as it sounds) and a few, sadly, are in prison. While that’s not a particularly high percentage of guests who have moved to something more stable, we will do our best to keep on supporting them.”

Since closing for the winter, a number of guests have been able to move on to more permanent accommodation, including two who have successfully entered a residential rehabilitation programme and another who has moved into the private rented sector. While it is often a slow process, taking two steps forward and one step back, we will continue to support those within our city who need it.

A (more than) fortnightly update! 20/11/17 – 08/12/17

OPENING WEEKEND WINTER 2017/18

Last weekend was our first weekend open for the 2017/2018 winter. We had 5 different guests stay with us over the weekend in total, and we were able to provide a hot meal and support to another which is fantastic for our first weekend of the year! A huge thank you to all our volunteers who were on shift for showing such warm welcome and hospitality, and also to our cooks who made such delicious meals for our guests to enjoy.

AWARDS & GRANTS

Last Wednesday, 29th November, Jackie and Kate were invited to the Expert Citizens’ Insight Conference after being nominated as part of the “Learning from people” category for their work with night shelter. Expert Citizens is a fantastic group (part of VOICES of Stoke) which is made up of individuals who use their lived experience of multiple complex needs to improve the lives of others who are experiencing similar challenges. Although we didn’t win, it was wonderful to have the work of night shelter recognized in this way and to learn so much from others at the conference.

Secondly, The Staffordshire Foundation is an organisation which looks after a number of small trust funds within the area and is responsible for awarding financial grants to local community groups. We were thrilled to receive an award of £1,000 to further support the work of the night shelter this winter. Many thanks to Rev Chris Ambler for attending the presentation event yesterday at Port Vale Football Club and receiving our award.

DONATIONS UPDATE

We have had a number of very generous donations from a range of organisations and individuals over the past few weeks for which we are extremely grateful. It would be impossible to name everyone but here are a couple of groups that have supported us most recently:
– 1st Fegg Hayes Boys Brigade and Girls Association. A huge thank you for your wonderful donations of gloves, scarves, hats and socks. These will be very warmly received by our guests this winter.
– Kidsgrove Brownies & Rainbows. Another big thank you  for organising a collection to support the work of night shelter.
– Wetley Rocks Methodist Church. We are so grateful for your financial support this winter which will go a long way in enabling us to support our guests beyond the three nights of accommodation we offer.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

EVENT: Tonight, Saturday 9th December, 7pm at Tunstall Methodist Church – Nicki Nicholls will be speaking about her journey from homelessness to fundraiser and campaigner. It would be fantastic to see as many folk there as possible so please come along and support this event this evening.

Don’t forget you can still choose us to be your “local cause” to support every time you visit a Co-op shop! Choose your cause here: https://www.coop.co.uk/membership/local-community-fund

If you are interested in volunteering with us, we are looking to organise another volunteer event in early January due to such large interest. Please keep an eye on our Facebook page to find out more in due course.

A fortnightly update! 06/11/2017 – 19/11/2017

Last Wednesday, we had our last briefing and training session for new volunteers before we open in December, once again held at the fantastic YMCA North Staffs. About 20 folk came along to find out more about volunteering which was fantastic and we are looking forward to them joining our ever-growing volunteer team.

Sarah, one of our wonderful volunteers, has organised for the night shelter to be included in the Co-op’s ‘Local Causes’ scheme. If you are a Co-op member you can go to their website, log in and choose to support us as your local cause. 1% of anything you then spend in the co-op will be donated to the night shelter project. It’s such a quick and easy way to support us so please get involved if you can. You can find the link here.

We have had lots of generous donations of clothing and bedding from a range of organisations and individuals over the past fortnight. In particular, a huge thank you to Inknit Together for their very generous donations of socks and hand warmers and also to Liz’s Slimming group in Clayton for donating a range of much-needed items. Donations can be accepted on Monday nights between 6-8pm at Wesley Hall Church in Sneyd Green.

It is now less than 2 weeks to go until we open for the winter on Friday 1st December. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we ramp up our preparations before opening and if you are a person that prays, please consider joining our prayer network.

Thank you so much for your continued support. Our next update will be after our first weekend open for the winter.

October 2017: Project Update

Somehow October managed to fly right past us without a chance to discuss what’s been happening for the night shelter project this month.

We had two successful training sessions for our new volunteers on the 5th and 19th of October, hosted by the wonderful YMCA North Staffs team in Hanley. It was fantastic to get to know so many new folk who have a passion to help those who are homeless in our city and we are so pleased that they will be joining our ever-expanding team of night shelter volunteers. Due to the steady influx of people wanting to volunteer this year, we will be hosting a final briefing and training session for new volunteers on Wednesday 15th November, 6.30pm – 9pm. The venue is currently being organised and we will confirm this via our Facebook page. The Facebook event for this training session can be found here – https://www.facebook.com/events/337200100084985/

In sadder news, Temple Street Methodist Church, who hosted the night shelter on Sunday nights last winter, have decided that they want to continue independently of STCCNS this year and so won’t be hosting us on Sunday nights for 2017-2018. However, the wonderful Wesley Hall Church in Sneyd Green have generously agreed to host us on Sunday nights as well as Friday nights and so we should be able to provide accommodation for the 3 weekend nights as we did last year.

More excitingly, some of you may know that we have spent the past year developing a plan for a permanent night shelter base in the Chapel Lane building behind Swan Bank Church, in tandem with the Number 11 Project. We are funding the renovation of the upstairs floor of the building with plans to develop the night shelter project from there over the coming years, and the building work is now set to begin on the 12th December 2017 which is fantastic news. Further details on the Chapel Lane building to follow soon – watch this space.

That’s all for October’s news – keep your eyes peeled for donation updates and other exciting news over November.

Preparing for the 2017/2018 winter

September is here again, and so our attention turns to the coming winter and our provision and support for those sleeping rough within our city.

On Thursday 7th, we held our first information evening for new volunteers. About 30 individuals from across the city gathered at the YMCA to find out more about the project and it was fantastic to also have so many current volunteers with us to hear first hand about their own thoughts and experiences of the project. We have 2 training sessions for new volunteers coming up next month – Thursday 5th & 19th October at the YMCA North Staffs – please drop us an email or facebook message if you intend on coming so we can organise sufficient resources and refreshments [stokewinternightshelter@gmail.com]

Donations have already started to roll in from various organisations and individuals including ‘Socks and Chocs’, a charity who are supporting the homeless across the West Midlands. [http://socksandchocs.co.uk/] Their donations of sleeping bags and pillows are very much appreciated, as well as their generous agreement to fund some of our emergency accommodation over the next winter. Over the past couple of years, we have found emergency accommodation to be a crucial stepping stone between rough sleeping and permanent accommodation and so to be able to secure some funding for this particular purpose is wonderful. Please contact us directly if you would like to donate to the night shelter project so that we can organise drop offs etc.

Fundraising events are currently in the works to support the work of night shelter this year, so watch this space for more information soon. We are hoping to build on the successes of the Afternoon Tea last November and the Strawberry Tea earlier in June – both of which raised over £1,000!

We thank you for your continued support of Stoke-on-Trent Churches Community Night Shelter – together we are making a difference for those sleeping rough in our wonderful city.

Strawberry Tea Summer Fundraiser

This afternoon we had our summer fundraiser – a strawberry tea – at Leigh Memorial Methodist Church. The sun was blazing which meant we could use the lovely garden at the back of the building too as well as inside the church and we had bunting strewn all over the place.

On the menu, we had copious amounts of homemade scones, cakes, cheesecakes and tarts as well as strawberries and cream which were kindly donated by Tesco. Has Bean Coffee provided us with coffee to serve throughout the afternoon, along with tea & cold lemonade.

The raffle sold lots of tickets thanks to the fabulous prizes we had donated, including:
– An ‘Emma Bridgewater’ Experience Day
– A factory tour at Middleport Pottery
– 2 tickets to a New Vic production
– A cream tea for four at Barnicles
– 2 x £10 vouchers for The Kitchen
– A £10 voucher for 51-53 store
– Fish & Chips for 2 at Mothertown Fish & Chips

Our bring & buy stall hosted some wonderful handmade cards, flower arrangements and candles as well as poems written by a local poet and we continued to sell our tote bags which were printed by local print business, ‘Present Workshops.’

The support of local businesses has been truly phenomenal and we are so grateful but nevertheless, the highlight of the afternoon was undoubtedly seeing some of our night shelter guests coming along to volunteer and help out at the event, further building a sense of community within the night shelter project as guests and volunteers worked side by side serving cake and pouring tea.

Overall, we raised a whopping £1016.00 – a truly fantastic sum of money which will go a long way in helping to prepare for the next winter season as well as emergency accommodation provision in the meantime. Our summer fundraiser illustrates just what can happen when communities come together to support one another – here’s to many more successful events which bring the Stoke-on-Trent community together in this way.

Carrie Ambler. 18/06/17.

 

A Monthly Update! (because we’re rubbish at remembering to do it fortnightly)

Greetings everyone!

I’m so sorry that there hasn’t been much news from us recently, there’s been a lot going on and February seems to have rushed past. Here’s what’s been happening within the night shelter project over the past couple of weeks…

DONATIONS

• Kate was invited to attend a Unite the Union meeting last week and discuss the work that night shelter has been doing this year. We are OVER THE MOON that at the end of the meeting, Unite very generously donated £1,200 towards the project !! This incredible donation will go a long way in supporting our guests and keeping the project running smoothly.
• County Insurance in Crew, where one of our volunteers works, have also very kindly donated £250 to night shelter. We are so grateful for the generosity of local businesses!
• Individuals and organisations continue to support us with practical donations for our guests including clothing, sleeping bags, blankets etc. Thank you so much to everyone who contiunes to support us in this way – we couldn’t operate without these items.

GUESTS’ GOOD NEWS

• One of our guests has recently moved into a Brighter Futures property which is wonderful news.
• Another guests has been accepted onto the Restart programme and so now has accommodation through this scheme.
• A couple of guests have moved into rooms in different hostels within the city including 90 Hope Street and the Salvation Army and we are continuing to pursue this option for some of our other guests.
• With support from the Council Bond Scheme, another guest has been able to move into a council property.

As we look to the end of the night shelter provision for this winter, we are considering different ways in which we can continue to support our guests throughout the spring and summer time. Our volunteers continue to demonstrate compassion and hospitality to each guest that is welcomed at night shelter and we are so very grateful for their time and energy.

 

STCCNS: MID-PROJECT SUMMARY

Stoke-on-Trent Churches Community Night Shelter has now been open for nine weeks during the 2016/2017 winter. We recently prepared a project summary for the city’s Homelessness Forum last week and thus we thought we would share this information with all of our supporters.

All of this information refers to the period between Friday 2nd December 2016- Sunday 29th January 2017.

• 36 different guests have accessed the night shelter for at least one night.
• 7 guests are now in more permanent accommodation including 90 Hope Street and Salvation Army Hostels, The Lyme Trust, RESTART properties and private rented accommodation. We have also been able to provide emergency Bed & Breakfast provision for 9 guests.
• These guests have been referred from 9 different agencies: Hanley Police Station, Burslem Police Station, Leek Police Station, Brighter Futures’ Rough Sleepers Team, Voices, The Macari Centre, The WALK Project, EDT and Hanley Baptist Church.
• 61 different volunteers have worked on a night shelter shift and 22 different cooks have provided evening meals. That’s 83 people and counting from the Stoke-on-Trent community caring for those sleeping rough in our city!

These basic statistics really emphasise the community nature of the night shelter project and we hope to build on this further as we continue to support the homeless within Stoke-on-Trent.

A fortnightly update! 10/01/2017 – 24/01/2017

The latest goings on within the Stoke-on-Trent Churches Community Night Shelter project…

Donations:

• A huge thank you to Trentham Parish Church and Werrington Methodist Church for their very generous monetary donations. This support will be invaluable in terms of helping us to progress to the next stage of the night shelter project.
• Thank you so much to all of the individuals who have collected donations for us and dropped them off – it’s so wonderful to be able to offer our guests new clothes, toiletries and rucksacks.

Guests’ Good News: 

Over the past few weeks, three of the guests we have been supporting have been able to move into hostel accommodation. Two guests now have rooms in The Salvation Army hostel and another guest has a room in the 90 Hope Street hostel run by Brighter Futures. Having a permanent base which is their own personal space is such an important step in moving out of homelessness.

We are continuing to support our other guests for whom finding accommodation is a more complicated process as well as past guests who need help accessing benefits, work etc.

Other bits and pieces: 

Kate was able to go out one morning with Brighter Futures’ Rough Sleepers Team which provided real insight into how they work. This deeper understanding has enabled us to build on the relationship we have with this organisation and find new ways of working together.

Jackie will be on BBC Radio Stoke’s breakfast show tomorrow morning to discuss homelessness within the city as well as what the night shelter is doing to help those rough sleeping. Tune in to hear her at around 8.20am.