We seek to mould the services we offer to the needs of the community we serve. Everyone is welcome and everything is free, we make no charge for anything.
We aim to
- provide a safe place for people to meet, talk and receive help
- help people break the chains that hold them in life styles that are often detrimental to their wellbeing
- help people make small steps that eventually allow them to make big decisions about how they want to live their life
- provide volunteering opportunities to allow people to naturally grow and make progress in their life choices and gain confidence.
Our entry level activity is a free coffee shop on a Tuesday morning between 10-12. We offer tea, coffee, squash, toast, crumpets, cake and saviours to meet immediate need of hunger for whatever reason or cause. The coffee shop also offers a safe place to chat and ask for help, allowing us to offer direct help or signpost to other services. We often have council representatives present as they find it is a place they can help people who will often not seek help at the council offices.
From the needs of people attending the coffee shop we have developed a range of “banks” to help people move forward. So we offer clothes, toiletries, food, bedding and small household items free of charge and we don’t ask any questions about need. We assume honesty.
So that all the “banks” and coffee shop is ready to open on a Tuesday, we hold “The Big Sort” on a Monday morning when we sort through all the donations and put items on racks or shelves ready to be given out on a Tuesday.
Responding to the needs of some people on Tuesday we have developed “Getting to Know You” on a Thursday from 12:30-3pm. This is an arts and crafts based group with free light lunch at 12:30. You can choose from a choice of activities e.g. knitting, large jig saw, painting, colouring. We have a game of bingo for those who want to join in. We always finish with singing together, with percussion instruments available. Sometime the singing is linked to a craft activity earlier. We encourage creativity. This group is popular with people with additional needs.
We target no one group of people but a wide group of people access our services. So in any given week we will see people who are homeless, have insecure accommodation, addiction problems, asylum seekers, refugees, nationals from EEA, mental health issues