George
detached house that takes 11 clients with low support needs. With its 11 bedrooms, shared bathrooms, a kitchen and a lounge over three floors, Rookery Nook has a welcoming, more relaxed atmosphere and feels more like a family home. Looking to the future, we plan to include an outside gym in the back garden of Witham Lodge. Exercising outdoors gives people all the physical benefits of indoor exercise – improved cardiovascular health, blood flow, strength, flexibility, endurance and more – while also providing exposure to sunlight that increases their levels of vitamin D. This will give our clients the opportunity to exercise for free during the day and evening. We hope it will help to relieve stress and occupy their
‘
Witham Lodge
I never know from one day to the next what I am going to be facing
’
time, which will benefit their overall fitness and mental wellbeing. This is all being funded through generous donations received over Christmas from a local hotelier, a church and Falmouth Temple. Falmouth is my home corps and has been raising money for the Lifehouse ever since its inception. What I love about being the service manager here is that I never know from one day to the next what I am going to be facing. For example, we recently had a couple of quiet days when everything was running smoothly. The residents were attending their appointments with support workers and a couple were excited to have been accepted for properties and were due to be moving out. On the third day of that week, I came on shift to discover that the night staff had trouble with a group of people, starting at 10pm and finishing at 4.30am. My job was to speak to all those concerned and see what they had to say about their actions. This took most of my morning and they were all given 28-day written notices, which meant they had to abide by the rules of the centre for the next month.
Coastguards Jonathan and Paul on Remembrance Sunday We have had many residents’ lives transformed since coming through the centre, two of whom went on to flourish as coastguards. Paul was successful in Spain, running his own bar for 10 years, but his relationship broke down early in 2015. He needed to return to the UK and rebuild his life from scratch but had no address to call home. Jonathan had no life skills whatsoever and became homeless after the death of his father. Having worked hard all his life, Paul wanted to do something at the Lifehouse and encouraged Jonathan and others to build an onsite pond and chicken coop to give residents something to do. They both became regularly active in our Hope project and partnered Jobcentre Plus, the council wellbeing team, the probation service, social services and housing associations as part of their work experience. They were working several days a week helping many vulnerable people in the Skegness area with gardening or painting and decorating. Jonathan moved into his own accommodation in 2016 and Paul in 2017. They set up a business together as handymen and joined the coastguard team and are now fully qualified. One of my proudest moments was when they laid a wreath at the town cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday. Salvationist 9 April 2022 Salvationist Day Month 2020
9 00
