The Crisis at Christmas 2024-25 campaign has now concluded.
Firstly, thank you to everyone who donated the much appreciated total of £480 plus gift aid. Many things are offered and volunteered to Crisis, but not everything, and your donations help enormously to address these costs and services. Thankfully also, Santa Claus getting hacked did not affect the amazing outcome.
Three weekends of family volunteering afforded me some very valuable observations and information on the work of Crisis at Christmas Homeless campaign:
1. Simple human interactions have enormous positive impact.
Making eye contact whilst asking a guest for their name and what their choice of meal and drink are, went a long way to lifting the veil of invisibility and the cruelty of isolation. Listening and talking to the guests in an attentive non-judgmental manner helped to make them feel human again.
2. COVID was indeed a blessing in disguise for homeless charities. It forced Crisis and others to find alternative accommodation solutions and reexamine the whole approach to this nasty problem. Now, guests have the rare-for-them experience of sleeping safely on a proper bed in a room with basic facilities you and I take for granted.
Previous efforts focussed on providing camping style beds in a sports hall with up to 250 people. Warm and dry yes, and certainly not bad by any stretch of the imagination but also not as human as you or I might wish for or expect for ourselves.
3. Mens Coats: care to donate a new or used man’s coat? 80% of all homeless guests are men, but 80% of the coats donated are from women. Jokes aside, you can see the winter dilemma!. All sizes needed.
4. Volunteer Shortages for the next campaign – Can you help?
The Crisis team has advised the following reliable talents were in short supply and are needed for the 2025-26 campaign. Email cc************@cr****.uk to make your offer of 2-3 days over the next December-January period.
· Dentists
· Podiatrists
· Chiropractors
· Hairdressers
· Entertainers
Yes, we served food & drinks, answered questions, ensured general security, processed information, supervised, and fixed TVs, computers, playstations; we organised warehouse supplies, clothing and other functional things, but… the purpose of all these things was the fulfilment of one goal: To make the guests feel human again, free from judgment. And with this achieved, it becomes significantly easier to transition a guest out survival and existence mode, and into a better life; 80% of the c.5,500 (nationally) who passed through Crisis this Christmas are going to much more pleasant environments and situations.
It is the equivalent of extending a hand to someone who has fallen down and needs a little assistance in getting back up. Not hard right?