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About Hackney Winter Night Shelter Hackney Winter Night Shelter provides a warm welcome, a hot meal and a
bed for 25 homeless people each night from January to March each year. We
also help our guests to escape the street and find long-term accommodation. Last
winter, 557 volunteers from around Hackney helped to run the Shelter. We are
preparing to re-open in January, and we need volunteers to help set up the Shelter,
welcome our guests, cook and serve supper, and some to stay overnight and
provide a cooked breakfast in the morning. Seventeen years ago, a group of local Christians,
some of who had personal experience of homelessness, were thinking about how
they could help the people they saw sleeping on the streets around Hackney.
They had the idea that if a group of churches each took responsibility for
running a shelter for one night of the week, some of those people could be
helped. What started as a loose network of volunteers from local churches
collaborating to address a problem on their doorsteps, has developed into
Hackney Winter Night Shelter.
Setting the table for supper Our Shelter operates during the coldest months
each year, from the beginning of January to the end of March. We still
operate on the same basic principles: the Shelter is at a different church
hall each night of the week, and a local team of volunteers provide a
welcome, a hot meal and a bed for the night for our homeless guests. We offer hospitality to those who come to us, and
we regard them as guests. We try to provide the best we can with limited
resources, and to make our guests feel at home. We think it is important to
take time to have a chat with our guests and get to know them. Many have
commented on the warmth of the welcome they receive. We now employ our Link Worker full-time. During
the day, homeless people can phone him to find out if there is room for them
at the Shelter. If there is, he explains how to get to the Shelter that
evening. If not, he is often able to find callers a bed in other shelters
around
Watching the
Arsenal v At the Shelter venue for the evening, some of the
volunteer team arrive early to set things up: they put out beds and start
cooking supper. Our Link Worker arrives to check in those with reserved beds.
Our guests get to the Shelter in time for its opening at 8pm (7pm on
Sundays), and are welcomed by the volunteers with tea. After they have had a
chance to settle in, supper is served. We provide a hot meal and a pudding
each evening. Often, the volunteers will eat with the guests. After supper, there is time for relaxation:
watching TV, reading a book or newspaper, playing cards or chess, or
chatting. Some of the shelter venues have showers, which our guests make good
use of; we provide toiletries and towels. This is also the time when our Support Workers can
work with our guests individually, trying to find suitable longer-term
accommodation for them. Our Support Workers come to us from Thames Reach, a
Tuesday evening cooks At about 9:30pm, some of the guests will go off to
another “dormitory” hall to sleep; in this way, we can accommodate more
people. Last winter, we provided 25 beds each night, split between the main
Shelter venue and the dormitory hall. Also at around 9:30pm, the evening shift of
volunteers leave and the smaller overnight team arrive. People start going to
bed, and we usually put the lights out at about 11pm. The volunteers take
turns to get some rest, but at least two will be awake at any time. People start getting up in the morning around
6:30am. More volunteers arrive at this time to help with breakfast and
clearing up. A hot cooked breakfast is ready at 7am. After breakfast, our guests start to leave, and
the volunteers put away the beds and clear up; usually the halls used by the
shelter are use by other groups during the day, so everything must be tidied
away. We aim to finish clearing up by 8:30am. The Shelter venues are spread around Hackney, and
each has a team of local volunteers and a coordinator who arranges a rota. We
aim to have enough volunteers so people don’t have to be at the Shelter every
week. In particular, we try to make sure people don’t have to do overnight
shifts more than once a month. We ensure there is always an experienced
Overnight Coordinator who is in charge at the Shelter. We organise training courses for our volunteers,
in understanding homelessness, drug and alcohol problems, First Aid, and
dealing with aggressive behaviour (of which there is, thankfully, little at
the Shelter). We encourage our volunteers to get more involved with running
the Shelter – we need people who are prepared to be coordinators, fundraisers
and charity trustees. When the Shelter closes at the end of March, our
Support Workers make a huge effort to make sure all our guests have
alternative accommodation. Our Link Worker continues to work with those who
have found a place to stay in the area, providing day-to-day support for
people who may not be used to life off
the streets. We
are starting a Befriending scheme, which would enable volunteers to meet
regularly with former guests, to provide ongoing social contact. This is
another opportunity for volunteers to get involved. All
of these projects come under the umbrella of Hackney Doorways, our registered
charity. A group of volunteer Trustees runs the charity, raises funds to
support our activities, and makes sure we are meeting all the legal
requirements. COULD YOU HELP? Each year we seek new volunteers. Below is a list of the jobs that need doing; times vary slightly between shelter venues. We have many people for the welcoming time, but are always short of people willing to stay overnight, to cook, to help clear up in the mornings and to deal with the laundry.
To
put your name forward, please email: |
