ThresholdHomeless Care newsletter 25

Homeless Care in Maidstone for over 33 years

Rylan Clark-Neal hosts Supermarket Sweepfilmed in Maidstone Studios with donations to Homeless Care & Maidstone Day Centre

2

What confusing times we have been living through and how difficult it has been to make progress or even make plans. Opinions on the future of the UK have been discussed, argued and often put on the ‘too difficult’ pile. Once the dust has settled on elections and Brexit, will there be a flurry of activity and firm decisions all round or will it be more promises and more of the same?

Whatever this year brings we will continue to work as we have done for over thirty years, to offer support and future opportunities to our homeless and vulnerable men and women clients. 2019 has been a tough year for many of us because of funding cuts, staff shortages and not enough money to develop new ideas but we have in fact come a long way. Goodsell House, our resettlement unit has been upgraded to supported accommodation status. This means that with the addition of new specialist staff and the property refurbished, we can

Welcome to our 25th edition of Threshold . . .

Angela Clay Editor

offer so much more support to residents there. Homeless people are statistically more likely than the rest of the population to be suffering with mental health issues, so this is now the focus of much of our work. With warmest wishes to all our supporters. Angela Clay, Editor

If you’d like to organise a collection then you can always borrow our collection buckets . . . 01622 674064

Dee has been with us for over ten years and is about to retire and we will all really miss her! Officially Maidstone Day Centre Housekeeper, Dee has taken on many roles, including cooking, cleaning and organising the collections and delivery of donations for Food for Thought. A big thank you Dee, from all of us.

Dee’s time to put her feet up

3

In our own back yard.The NCS, National Citizen Service, turned our grey and serviceable patio (right) into a very attractive space in which to relax and unwind. Our clients are delighted with the transformation and come the spring, it will be enjoyed again.

What else has been going on at Homeless Care?

Brookfield Infants colourful Harvest Festival.

We are always delighted to accept invitations to Harvest festivals or Carol concerts and we love the songs, poems and plays that are often part of the celebrations. We are always grateful for the donations of food, money, sleeping bags or warm clothes that are collected for our homeless men and women so a huge thank you to all our supporters.

Left to Right: Nikol, Samuel & Evva

Money, money, moneyHomeless Care has been battling the effects of a £50,000 funding cut from Kent County Council, earlier this year. It costs around £,200,000 to run our service at Maidstone Day Centre and 50k was a sizeable chunk of our income so we have been busy seeking new sources of funding.

Nationwide, the UK’s biggest building society, is supporting charities in the South East who are dealing with housing issues. We were delighted to have been awarded £30,000 towards running Maidstone Day Centre.

Going back to the issue of mental health, the Kent Police and Crime Commissioner has for the second year awarded us £10,000 towards employing a mental health specialist and the Joan Ainslie Trust and Maidstone International Community Church have each donated £5,000 towards those salaries.

On our website homelesscare.org.uk the Virgin Giving ‘donate’ button brings in money ranging from a couple of pounds to occasionally a couple of thousand and with Gift Aid this is increased by 12.5%. We are so thankful to all who give as every penny helps our service to continue. Regular/monthly/annual, donations are especially useful because they allow us to plan our activities and expenditure.

Thank you for all your donations.

For more information about donations, including how to increase the value of your donation by 25% please see page 11.

4

Homelessness and Health Care

Claire Knight, Complex Care nurse.

Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust (KCHFT) are running drop-in clinics for the homeless at Maidstone Day Centre.

The service comes after an approach by Maidstone Borough Council calling for a nurse-led clinic to support the health of rough sleepers around the town.

Treatment for diabetes, lung disease, pregnancy, infected wounds and skin conditions are offered at the day centre to help the general health of homeless.

This is the second year that thirteen year old Callum has set up a Christmas light display in his front garden, to raise money for Homeless Care. Callum’s mum told us that he attends a mainstream school with a Special Resources Provision department and that he organised the fundraiser himself. The magical display can be seen at 18 Queen Elizabeth Square, Maidstone ME15 9GD from 5pm to 9pm each evening until 4th January. Here, Callum is showing his thank you letter from us last Christmas.

6

Kent Police Student Officer Community Placement Programme

For several years now Kent Police students have been part of everyday life at Maidstone Day Centre. The Staff enjoy working with the young policemen and police women and our clients get the chance to interact too.

Manager Zofia Grzymala said, “It is a fantastic programme. The students are really useful and pick up our way of working very quickly. They are learning a lot and maybe changing their perception of homeless people. We are very happy to have their help. It is a win-win situation.We were very happy and proud to receive the letter below.

Dear Zofia

I am writing to thank you for the continuing partnership work you complete with us in the Kent Police Student Officer Community Placement

Programme. The time, resources, patience and guidance that you show and provide to our student officers has such an impact on them as individuals but also as police officers for their future careers.

When a student attends your venue they are generally moved out of their comfort zone and definitely their normal environment.

This is the start of the journey towards greater knowledge of a community that until now has been invisible or even avoided by them. By exposing the individual officers allows them to mould their service delivery to cater for a multitude of individual needs which they have the potential of coming across every day in their policing career.

It is for your selfless generosity in accepting and hosting our young officers within your challenging world that we would like to give you the attached Certificate of Appreciation, signed by the Chief Constable of Kent, Alan Pughsley QPM as a token of the young students, the training team and the organisations thanks for all your efforts.

We hope that you can continue to remain with us through this programme and hope that you can assist us to deliver a first class service to the population of Kent. The training statement of ‘trained by the community, with the community for the community’, sums up the foundation of this placement programme. Thank you again for all your help.

Yours Faithfully,

Sarah Meloni, Community Placement Officer

life battling mental health issues and the effects of drug and alcohol misuse. The life change for her has been since she started working with the charity, Change Grow Live, (CGL) to address all the issues that surrounded her addictions. Her story is as chaotic and awful as they come. She suffers from paranoia, schizophrenia and depression as well as asthma and although she is prescribed medication to help her condition, she is always fearful that those drugs will be stolen from her when she sleeps, so she is wakeful. No stranger to violence, and to prison, she has suffered domestic abuse and has an offending history of assault, intent to supply drugs and an ASBO (Anti Social Behaviour Order). Despite all this, she is a popular woman who the other clients warm to. Tina has a son who lives with his father, because of her lifestyle but she is keen to point out that she maintains contact with them both.

To turn her life around will be a tough call When she is housed once again, we will be there to help and support her so that this time she can maintain the tenancy and start to live again, or maybe for the first time.

We know that everyone who makes the decision to turn their life around does so when the moment is right for him or her and every timetable is different. However much others try, no one else can do it for them. Families and friends go through abject fear and misery wanting to take away the problems for their loved ones but the decision is not in their hands. However, once there is a glimmer of the wish to change, then a strong support network of people who care, can work wonders. (continues over page)

7

Their stories . . .David: David was born in SA, moved to Kent with his family and spent some time working in pubs and restaurants in Maidstone before moving up to Scotland to a job that promised accommodation. Unfortunately, the job folded and very quickly he was sleeping rough and drinking to excess, to shut out the pain of the failure he felt. Because he was not from that area, the Local Authority had no duty of care for him and so he was referred back to Maidstone.

Someone advised him to go Maidstone Day Centre where he received a warm welcome and the support he needed. David told Threshold that when he had most needed help our mental health specialist had been a lifeline to him. She had listened to him, never judged him and slowly his damaged self esteem started to grow. Life started to look up. The Council found him accommodation and because he was then feeling safe and better about himself he was able to look outside his own problems. He became one of our volunteers, helping others who were going through the misery of homelessness. Who better to help than someone who has been there?

“I would still be on the streets without Maidstone Day Centre’s help,” he said. But it was David’s own decision and determination to turn his life around that made the difference.

Tina: Tina has been clean for a year! After being on Heroin for 22 years along with crack cocaine, cannabis, speed and alcohol, this is a huge achievement for the 37 year old who has spent most of her

Mark: When Mark was made redundant from his job as a security guard, he become full time carer for one of his five sons who is disabled. That worked well for several years but then Mark and his partner split up. What followed was a revolving door of drinking, sofa surfing and sleeping rough. At one time he was getting through 8-10 cans of Special Brew each day which took most of his Benefits money. “One of the worst elements of living on the streets was the insecurity and never feeling safe,” he said. “and it was the boredom,” so he started on Spice and other legal highs which led to him getting into trouble with the Police. Mark’s road to recovery started when he moved into supported accommodation. After sleeping rough for so long, for the first two weeks he was unable to sleep in his bed and would curl up on the floor. Slowly he has adjusted to this new life and is now tackling his alcoholism and has made contact with his sister and one of his children.

Not quite free of anxiety and depression, he is working with our support staff to address that and things are definitely

looking better as he makes progress.

Harry: “Life would be harder without the Day Centre. I thank them for their support in helping me with my housing

and keeping me on track.

Only Harry was happy for us to photograph him, so thanks Harry. David, Tina and Mark want to remain anonymous but many thanks for letting us tell your stories.

8

Sad news This year we mourned the loss of our cook Maria who had been a very important member of the team for over 10 years. We were all deeply saddened when she died after just a short illness. Day Centre clients will miss her lovely hot meals. We are thankful for her time with us.

Message from our manager, Zofia Grzymala The number of rough sleepers has gone down since last year and all of us who are part of the homeless sector in Maidstone are pleased that our hard work is making a difference. We are though very aware that there is no room for complacency as the battle is by no means over. All the organisations, Maidstone Borough Council and charities are pulling together to make a difference but we know that we face new challenges ahead.

Here at Homeless Care we are committed to doing everything we can to help homeless and vulnerable people in Maidstone. We do this mainly through our service at Maidstone Day Centre in Knightrider Street, but also at Goodsell House, a residential property in the town which we use to house clients straight from the streets.

Goodsell House has historically been registered as an HMO (House of Multiple Occupation) but in response to the need for us to provide a higher level of support, we have changed our registered status to Supported Accommodation. The impact has been huge in terms of all the additional Health and Safety regulations that we are now required to comply with. Reaching required standards has meant many alterations to the property and at enormous cost but we are very pleased with the results which mean a safer and more comfortable living space for our residents. One of the changes was to replace all the old fire doors with new, higher specification ones and another, to change one of the rooms into an office. Goodsell House office is the hub of activities, providing an admin area and also a private space where clients can

9

GoodsellHouse

meet with their support worker and receive counselling and help from other agencies. At the day centre we have seen a huge increase in the number of clients presenting with multiple physical and mental health issues; by having our own supported accommodation we are able to help more people who struggle to access services via the NHS.

Resettlement Manager Tracy Maybank heads up the project. She is working closely with the residents to help them manage the transition from rough sleeping to being housed so that they have the confidence to take charge of their lives and to move forward to independence. Tracy understands how confidence can take a beating if you are homeless and her aim is to make each person feel human again and a part of society.

10

Rylan Clark-Neal hosts Supermarket Sweep

filmed in Maidstone Studios with donations

to Homeless Care & Maidstone Day Centre.

New host Rylan Clark-Neal said: “What’s lovely about the show is that none of the food is going to waste.”Instead of chucking it out we’ve been sending all the food to a local foodbank and shelters.

“It’s great that we’re all having a laugh while filming a TV show but I’m really proud of the fact that when the cameras stop rolling we are making a difference in people‘s lives. How amazing is it that we can do that?”Thank you so much!

Dee at her post in the Day Centre kitchen.Dee is cooking lunch with food donated from ITV2’s Supermarket Sweep. Homeless Care Manager Zofia Grzymala said, “We were nicely surprised when all of the vans turned up. It meant there was enough food for the homeless people at Maidstone Day Centre, to have a feast. “It was also great for the clients from the hostel next door because they are really struggling with surviving on what benefits they receive, so this has really helped a lot of people. Picture: Sean Aidan

11

GIFT AID DECLARATION To: Homeless Care, 15 Knightrider Street, Maidstone, Kent ME15 6LP

I wish Homeless Care to treat all donations I have made in the last four years and all donations I make from the date of this declaration until I notify you otherwise, as Gift Aid donations

Signature ________________________________

Date ____________________________________

Full Name _______________________________

________________________________________

Address _________________________________

________________________________________

Postcode ________________________________

Telephone _______________________________

Email __________________________________

I am a UK taxpayer and I understand that if I pay less Income Tax and/or Capital Gains tax than the amount of Gift Aid claimed on my donations in that tax year it is my responsibility to pay any difference. If you pay income tax at the higher or additional rate and want to receive the additional tax relief due to you, you must include all your Gift Aid donations on your Self-Assessment tax return. Please notify Homeless Care if you wish to cancel this declaration, change your address or no longer pay sufficient tax on your income or capital gains.

Registered charity number 1151412

Help us to help others Homeless Care is there to help homeless and vulnerable people turn their lives around. The initial need is for hot showers, a good home cooked meal, clean clothes and a warm sleeping bag for cold nights. After that, work starts on obtaining benefits, medical attention and addressing any drug/alcohol or mental health needs.The search for accommodation will be next on the list, way before job seeking, because you are unlikely to find work if you do not have an address.We rely on donations and grants to run this service and we are always grateful to receive financial support whether by regular giving, wills or a one off gift.

How to givel Go to website www.homelesscare.org.uk and click on the ‘donate’ Virgin MoneyGiving button. You will be asked if you want to add Gift Aid l Direct transfer to Homeless Care’s bank: sort code: 40 52 40 account: 00023904l Cheque to Homeless Care please send to: Maidstone Day Centre, 15, Knightrider Street, Maidstone, ME15 6LP

Increase your gift valueAdding Gift Aid means that for every pound you give your £10 can be turned into £12.50. Imagine the difference that could make to our work and it won’t cost you a penny more. If you would like your gift to go further, please complete the Gift Aid Declaration on this page. To find out more about giving through regular donations, Wills or with cash, please ring our Manager, Zofiaon 01622 674064 or email: manager@homelesscare.org.uk

Food For Thought

Community Food Share Scheme

GoodsellHouse

Maidstone Day Centre

Maidstone Christian Care

Homeless Care

Creative & printing by Custom Marketing Resources 01622 820841 creative@cmr-group.co.uk www.cmr-group.co.uk

Homeless Care, 15 Knightrider Street, Maidstone, Kent ME15 6LP

01622 674064 manager@homelesscare.org.uk

www.homelesscare.org.uk

@MaidstoneDayCtr

Helping the Maidstone homeless for over 32 years

We are delighted to welcome our new Mental Health Specialist, Thea Theodorsdottir to the Homeless Care team. “I am very pleased to be the new Mental Health Specialist, at the Maidstone Day Centre. The staff are great and I enjoy being a part of the team. I look forward to facing the challenges ahead and making a difference for the clients here at the Centre and in the community”.

Homeless Care Limited Registered Company Number 08414392

Registered office: as above Registered Charity Number 1151412

Hello...