This was the fourth winter shelter set up in Bexley and totally different from the previous 3 years.<\/p>\n
It all started in September, with the team contacting the 200 odd volunteers from the 2019 Shelter; however we only received a positive response from 120 people. So in November we had a big push, which included me and Mark Cocklin speaking after each Mass one weekend at St Stephen\u2019s.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We managed to get the numbers up, thanks to a couple of our own parishioners, but they were desperate for a Team Leader for the Sunday night shift (10pm – 6.30am) at Our Lady of the Angels in Erith. As I don’t normally work on Mondays, I volunteered to cover this role, together with my normal Thursday evening shift at Trinity Church in Bexleyheath.<\/p>\n
I must admit I didn’t realise how hard the night shift was going to be, i.e. staying awake for 8 hours, however I had a couple of great volunteers with me and we did have opportunities for a little shut eye after our weekly catch up, games etc. The Thursday evening (6.30-10.15pm) shifts were easier as there was more interaction with the guests and other volunteers, i.e. my quizzes and games, plus the normal tasks that had to be performed.<\/p>\n
So, why was this year different?<\/p>\n
In the past we had on average 8-12 guests every night, people we got to know and built up relationships with, however by the end of the 3 month period, only approx 4 would have been housed, mainly down to the individuals not making a big effort unfortunately, which was normally linked to their mental health issues or addictions. Also, half the guests had been homeless for a long period, and were used to sleeping rough on the streets, or on public transport when possible.<\/p>\n
This time we had a couple of old faces, but the majority were new, mainly young men (aged 20-30 years old) who had been homeless for a short period of time, i.e. less than 6 months. Most were sofa surfing and had the right paperwork in place: Birth Certificate\/Passport, Bank Account, Benefits statement … all the requirements for renting a room or flat.<\/p>\n
So with the help of the wonderful team at Cornerstone, we have managed to house nearly 10 guests this year during the 3 months (at the time of writing this article) which has meant a smaller group of guests staying for dinner and bed for the night, I would say on average 5-6.<\/p>\n
Even with the big change this year I have still enjoyed volunteering at the shelter, despite my lack of beauty sleep on a Sunday night, which also impacted my weekly badminton sessions!<\/p>\n
It was nice to catch up with some old faces, both guests and volunteers, to meet new guests and volunteers, to have the banter, a wonderful 2 course meal every Thursday evening, playing games and having a quiz or two. Together with the knowledge I have been able to help some of our local residents get off the streets for the 3 coldest months of the year, by just doing what I enjoy in life … mixing and talking to different people.<\/p>\n
It doesn’t matter who we are, where we are from, or who we pray to, if at all … everyone deserves a safe place to sleep at night in this modern world of ours.<\/p>\n
I’m sure there will be a Bexley Winter Shelter 2021 and I hope by reading my article you will be encouraged to join us at whatever location, doing whatever shift, either once a week or once a fortnight … every little helps, a large local store reminds us \ud83d\ude42.<\/p>\n
This was the fourth winter shelter set up in Bexley and totally different from the previous 3 years. It all started in September, with the team contacting the 200 odd volunteers from the 2019 Shelter; however we only received a positive response from 120 people. So in November we had a big push, which included … Continue reading “Bexley Winter Shelter 2020”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":212,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":213,"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211\/revisions\/213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.saintstephens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}