Winter Newsletter 2012

WINTER NEWSLETTER 2012

back to work!

We are excited to announce the launch of a much-needed ‘Back to Work’ scheme in the New Year, which will benefit those who have been homeless and are keen to return to work.

The scheme will involve a comprehensive, employmentfocused maintenance, repair and retail course, giving participants practical work experience. We will also provide: job-searching and CV writing support; a current reference; and an address for scheme participants. Most importantly, the scheme will return people to the daily rhythm of work.

The scheme will also generate vital income for WNHT through selling second-hand electrical items from our old furniture shop on Queens Road and offering maintenance and repair services to local organisations, including Portable Appliance Testing (PAT). If you or your organisation would like us to provide this service, we would love to hear from you. Also, if you receive any unwanted electrical gifts over Christmas, we would gladly take them!

So far, we have raised £19,600 of the £64,000 required, in addition to pledges of support from local companies. If you are able to donate towards this scheme, please do get in touch.

Photo by flickr user steveritchie, used here under a Creative Commons Licence

STATS! 65% of the 600 people we support claim Job Seeker’s Allowance

30 people are hoped to access this course in year one

£63,633 The amount needed to make this new service successful and profitable

A SOUP-ER HARVEST

new hope, new shop!

FOODBANK LAUNCH

Our local superhero helps us to generate another bumper Harvest.

We’re launching a new shop.

Find out more inside.

Watford becomes one of the latest towns to welcome a much-needed foodbank.

A Soup-er Harvest!

Thank you so much for giving to the Harvest 2012 appeal. Once again, we have been overwhelmed by the generosity of 144 schools, churches, companies, synagogues and other community groups.

You gave 4,813 shopping bags full of food, over 1,000 stamps and over £3,500 which will enable us to buy fresh food such as milk, cheese and meat. Thank you!

Thanks also goes to the amazing Harvest Warehouse team who have sorted and counted hundreds of bags of food, toiletries and cleaning materials in preparation for distribution to our different services. They have worked tirelessly, professionally and with good humour over the autumn months. We would also like to thank our team of volunteer drivers who collected donations from 74 different locations, from Cheddington to Harrow to Gerrards Cross to Elstree – always with a friendly smile!

Many schools use the Harvest season to look at some of the reasons behind homelessness, and discover how Watford New Hope Trust helps those in need. The team of Harvest speakers have enjoyed seeing the children’s presentations, prayers and poems in all the assemblies we have

attended, but the Harvest 2012 Award goes to Ashfield Junior School in Bushey. Mike Smith, Chief Executive of WNHT, said: We are thrilled to award the Year Five class at Ashfield Junior School with this year’s Harvest Award for the best presentation. They had obviously thoroughly researched the issue of homelessness and the work of the Trust, and then communicated this in a creative and dynamic way. A winning assembly full of energy and enthusiasm which was a joy to watch!

Rebecca Palmer, Community Fundraising Manager, said: It’s marvellous to see our local communities getting behind the work of Watford New Hope Trust. As always, everyone has been incredibly generous which means that we will not only be able to provide food for the service users of Watford New Hope Trust, but can also give items to the new Watford Foodbank.

We don’t just do talks at Harvest! If you would like someone from the Trust to come to your church, your synagogue, your place of work, your school or your community group, please get in touch with Joy Ross on 01923 227 132 (for more information on the foodbank, please see page 5).

Across the country, homelessness organisations have started putting together service user groups that provide feedback to their services. For some time, Watford New Hope Trust has hoped for something similar.

We are excited to announce that we will be opening a new charity shop on New Road in Croxley Green this winter (subject to all the legal paperwork)!

We are looking for donations of good quality clothes, books, furniture, jewellery and toys to get the shop up and running. If you have any items which you would like to donate, please contact Mike Hewitt on 01923 210 680 for more information.

We are also looking for volunteers to help half a day a week in the shop. Retail experience is useful but not essential. For more information on how to get involved, please visit www.wnht.org/croxleygreen.

Our charity shops are a vital way of raising precious funds for our work with homeless and vulnerably-housed people in Watford, and also are a marvellous way of connecting with our local communities.

Thank you for supporting our shops!

At last we are pleased to announce that we have a Service User Involvement Team (SUIT), which was established with help of a former WNHT service user, Stan Burridge, who now works for London Pathway, an organisation which provides a model of integrated healthcare for homeless people.

The idea of the SUIT is to get a true impression of what our clients feel about our services, as well as to give them a louder voice in the wider community. Eight service users, taken from across WNHT, are spending time gathering feedback from our various services. They are then communicating their findings to our Senior Management Group. The SUIT is dedicated to giving a voice to all service users. All feedback is assessed, from experiences, compliments and concerns. The information gathered will contribute to our service design and develop operational procedures.

The hope is that, over time, the SUIT service will develop itself so we are regularly gaining valuable information from the users of our services. James Wilson, Operations Director, said: “Our service users experience our support in a different way from our staff; therefore their feedback is vital to how we develop our work�.

During the past year WNHT has witnessed an average of one service user death per month. In the last two months alone, our volunteers, service users and staff have seen two dearly loved people pass away at relatively young ages. This reminds us just how fragile life is.

Each day we build relationships with people who have deeply damaged lives and often they are incredibly vulnerable. Sadly, the reality is that our clients’ lives are often much shorter than the national average.

WE REMEMBER THOSE WHO we’ve lost in the last year

Crisis, a national homelessness charity, released statistics recently, which illustrate just how fragile life is, especially for those who are homeless. Their statistics said the following: •

The average age of death is 47 for those who have been homeless.

•

Homeless people are three and a half times more likely to commit suicide than a member of the general population.

•

They are seven times more likely to die from alcohol-related disease.

•

They are twenty times more likely to die from drug misuse.

•

They are three times more likely to die from chronic lower respiratory disease.

These are shocking, saddening and humbling facts.

If you are so inclined, we would ask that you pray for our volunteers, service users and staff as they mourn the loss of service users. Please pray too for God’s restoration and protection over the lives of those who are, or have been, homeless in our town, especially as weather becomes colder and conditions become more challenging.

foodbank launch

Growth at the garden

On 9th October we were delighted to attend Following substantial investment and and support the launch of the Watford development throughout this year, our Foodbank.

Community Market Garden has changed almost beyond recognition!

Foodbanks, which are a Trussell Trust initiative, provide those in crisis with A grant of £22,000 from the ASDA emergency food for a minimum of three Foundation provided funds for pathways, days. Food is donated by individuals, toilet facilities, a workshop, polytunnels and charities, churches and schools and feeds much more. Companies, including KPMG those who, for reasons such as redundancy and Cadbury, have spent hours volunteering or changes to benefits, are going hungry. in the garden developing the site for our There are over 250 foodbanks in the UK, service users, as well as learning about feeding over 100,000 people nationwide. homelessness.

Mike Smith, CEO of WNHT and member of the Foodbank’s organising committee, was present at the launch and said: We are so pleased to support this much-needed service. Too many are living below the poverty line and we must do what we can to help them.

It was fantastic to see so many people from across the community at the launch.

We now have the facilities to host school groups, and already we have had visits from schools in Abbots Langley, Northwood and Kings Langley. We are also looking at a longer-term relationship with our neighbours at Watford Grammar School for Boys.

The developments have increased the number of activities available to our service WNHT is giving all surplus Harvest food users. New workshops have included to the Watford Foodbank. If you or your willow-weaving, bush craft and jam-making, community group are able to donate food, and we have seen an increase in the number please visit the Watford Foodbank’s website, of clients benefitting from this peaceful www.watford.foodbank.org.uk location.

news bite MEAT & two veg Watford New Hope Trust has recently formed a fruitful new relationship with Costco, the membership warehouse club based in Hartspring Lane, Watford. Each morning, we are able to collect fresh meat, vegetables, fruit, bread and cakes for our seven accommodation services, and the Haven Day Centre. This should help save us a bit of dough!

All too often we do not hear about the quiet people who are diligently working away in the background and making things possible.

John is one of those people and we have been extremely grateful for his prayerful, wise and righteous counsel on our Board, as well as the practical support that he has offered us for the past 23 years.

John Bishop, second from left, with some of our trustees

JOHN BISHOP For many, the name John Bishop evokes thoughts of a loud Liverpudlian comedian.

However, for us at WNHT the name John Bishop belongs to a quiet and extremely dependable Midlander! John has served WNHT from the start and, sadly, he has recently announced his retirement from our Board of Trustees.

Recounting the days before WNHT began Janet Hosier, our late co-founder, writes the following about John in her book Entertaining Angels: People would say to Sheila and me, ‘Aren’t you afraid, having all those men in your house?’ and whilst we always tried to have John Bishop around for peace of mind we never had any reason to fear. John was a Civil Servant, quiet and dignified who enjoyed putting his faith into action in this way.

Characteristically, John describes his reason for stepping down from the Board concisely: “I believe that the Trust is in good hands and I feel the time has come for me to step aside and make way for someone new.”

Thankfully, John has pledged to remain on call to us as a volunteer; but we will miss having him on our leadership team. On behalf of us all THANK YOU John for your many years of faithful commitment and service to those who are homeless. Also, thank you to Alison, John’s wife, who is equally faithful in volunteering for us each week at our Watford shop.

get on board!

If you are interested in serving WNHT as a trustee, we are looking for people who are committed to the Christian foundations of the Trust and with expertise in the following areas: homelessness, social care, HR, legal and fundraising. Please call 01923 227 132 for more information.

news bite NEWT UPDATE! Following our previous newsletter we are sad to say that we have been unable to confirm sightings of Great Crested Newts in our Market Garden ponds. However, we can tell you that one dark and quiet night in September a couple of our staff went newt-spotting in the garden (apparently night time is best for this sort of thing). Newts were seen and, leaning in for a closer look, one member of staff fell in the pond. The search continues….

Poverty and Homelessness Action Week 26 January – 4 February 2013

including Homelessness Sunday on 27 January and Poverty Action Sunday on 4 February

watch our video

We have produced a short video which will be available at the beginning of January on our website at www.wnht.org/phaw. This is designed to show in churches and looks at how homelessness can affect people from all walks of life and backgrounds.

Walk with a purpose!

We need volunteers to deliver leaflets about Watford New Hope Trust to houses on the Cassiobury Estate, as well as in Chorleywood and Croxley Green. If you are able to help with this, please contact Rebecca on 01923 227 132 or rpalmer@wnht.org. You don’t need to knock on doors, simply post the leaflets through the letterboxes!

young friends help the homeless

7

st albans Sleepout

DEC 2012

St albans abbey

2 2 DEC

Christmas wrapping

2012

1

FEB 2013

23

CH MAR13 20

Amy Gordon, a pupil at Charlotte House School, has won £5,000 for WNHT. Amy, along with two friends, Daisy Bragg and Flossie Miller, took part in a competition in which participants were asked to research and promote a charity which could benefit from a gift of £5,000.

7 Dec 2012, 9pm - 7am

Harlequin shopping centre

22 Dec 2012, 9am - 7pm

watford sleepout 2013 ymca watford, charter place 1 Feb 2013, 9pm - 7am

WNHT birthday celebration the wellspring centre

23 March 2013, 7.30pm

ARE YOU or someone you know facing homelessness?

ADDRESS Watford New Hope Trust 67 Queens Road Watford WD17 2QN

Amy had heard about our work with homeless people through Daisy’s mum, Lucy Bragg, who works at our Chorleywood shop.

We are so grateful for the endeavours of this young team who worked hard to create an informative and captivating presentation.

CALL OUR 24/7 EMERGENCY PHONE LINE ON:

0300 012 0168

phone

01923 210 680

WEB

www.wnht.org

email

info@wnht.org

t Search for @wnht

f watfordnewhopetrust

Watford New Hope Trust is a registered charity (1080784) and a company limited by guarantee (03969063) Registered office: Cansdales, Bourbon Court, Nightingales Corner, Little Chalfont, Bucks, HP7 9QS.