At the weekend the Give More Campaign kicked off in West Quay Shopping Centre, Southampton.

Local charities and members of the general public were invited to make a pledge, in writing, or on camera, to Give More time, energy or money to local causes.

Research carried out by YouGov suggests that 65% of Southampton adults have given time, money or energy to causes they care about in the last six months, this is about the national average of 62%.
Interestingly, 58% of Southampton people think that need in their local community is likely to increase in the next 12 months, but in response to that, an astonishing 43% say that they could Give More money, time or energy to charity than they currently do. This statistic puts Southampton on the map (along with Sheffield) as the highest proportion of people saying that they could Give More. What a warm feeling, it makes me proud to live in Southampton, and delighted to work with a Southampton based charity.

As we (the UK) are officially back in recession, we know that need will be increasing in our communities.  The Give More Campaign aim to encourage the general public to think creatively about how they might be able to Give More energy, time, or money to causes that they care about is a simple one, but hopefully the impact will have far-reaching effects.

I was certainly pleased to be invited to make my pledge and feel that, now I have publicly committed to something, I am duty bound to see it through.

How will you pledge? Who will you support? Can you Give More?
To make your pledge public: http://www.givemore.org.uk/ and click the Pledge Now button on the top right of the screen.

Smashing Plates

A key element of our work is to try to be flexible in finding solutions, and I heard this recent example which made me very proud.
One of our housing projects recently housed someone with mental health issues, and also a problem with anger.  Based on what we knew about their earlier life, outbursts of anger might well be part of the process of coming to terms with the past.

However, the anger took the form of smashing plates and other crockery against the wall, which was disturbing to the other people living in the building, and soon led to complaints.   In our role as landlord, we need to ensure our tenants behave in a way that does not disturb others, all part of the agenda of tackling anti-social behaviour.

My colleagues came up with a great approach to the situation.
Steps were taken to make links with agencies that could help with anger management, but in the interim period the sound of smashing plates still needed dealing with. Staff arranged to install a big corkboard on one of the walls.   This meant that plates could be smashed with less disturbance to others, so avoiding issues of disturbing the neighbours.   It also meant that the issue of anger could be discussed openly, rather than becoming part of process that could lead to sanctions.

The outcome was ultimately that the individual gained from the professional therapeutic input they received, but in the meantime, life was at least a bit quieter for all concerned.

Trevor

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With a shade over a year and a month until we embark on our biggest community fundraising project yet, we’re still in a position to recruit more Himalayas charity trek participants.

Who WOULDN'T want to do this?

This begs the question, who do you know who’s ripe for a challenge?

Who do you know that enjoys hillwalking, trekking, mountain climbing? Who do you know that is passionate about fundraising, loves holding parties/events? Who do you know, who, by their own admission is having a mid-life crisis? Who do you know who wants to experience India? Who do you know with a heart for homeless and vulnerable people?
You do know someone who is a perfect fit for this Himalayas Charity Trek adventure …

Some of our trekkers have written to me to share what it was about this particular trip that inspired them to participate;

“I think I might be having a midlife crisis and suddenly have the urge to make the most of my life!”

“What an adventure… to go to India and see the amazing views in the Himalayas (something to tell the grandkids about). I am really excited and a little bit scared. It’s character building to step outside your comfort zone once in a while though and this is an opportunity of a lifetime!” - Beccy, Team Leader (SSJ)

“I’m undertaking this challenge not because it is my job and my wife wants to get rid of me for a while, nor because 10 days travelling, climbing mountains and camping without a bathroom is my idea of fun; but because I believe in the cause. Having worked with many homeless people, I truly appreciate that homelessness can genuinely happen to anyone.” - Sam, Fundraiser

“Having completed a 13,000ft skydive, an iron-man challenge and the Great South Run, I was passed the information about the Himalayas Charity Trek. I truly believe the trek will be a fantastic challenge, both physically and mentally. It really is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I couldn’t wait to sign-up!” – Hayley, Solicitor

“I am doing the Trek to challenge myself, I will turn 40 the day before we leave and I think it’s to prove to myself  I’m not too old! I have always wanted to go to India, the Himalayas and I’ve always wanted to go on a sleeper train (bit like in James Bond).  So by combining it all I get my dream and I’m doing it for Charity, which is always good for the karma points!” – Natalie, Lead Caseworker (Thames Reach)

“Didn’t realise I’d be so up for something like this until I was shown it, has stirred something inside …..I need this Challenge!!
… Doing the Trek is raising more awareness amongst my colleagues of The Society of St James and our Jamie’s Computers relationship; many have already had their wallets prised open to sponsor me!” Steve, Operations Services Manager

We all know someone who fits the bill for this.

Maybe, just maybe, something is stirring up inside you as you read this. To find out more, visit our web page, and then fill in the contact form there!

Somewhat excitingly, we were recently approached by the team organising this year’s Environmental Rock event in Southampton. They are running a charity Quizathon (8 pub quizzes, 8 venues, over 11 days) to raise funds for their annual event, and for the Society of St James.

Yesterday evening, two of our fundraisers met with the Environmental Rock committee to thrash out some fine detail, and to find out why they had elected to share their funds with us.
We were delighted to discover that their reason for supporting us was that they were looking for a local charity to work with, and that we were a really good fit because of our computer recycling, award-winning, social enterprise arm, Jamie’s Computers.

So, the quizzes kick off this Sunday, 22nd April at The Bridge on Southampton University’s campus.

Thereafter there will be one at The Gordon Arms on Monday the 23rd,
The Shooting Star on Tuesday the 24th,
The London on Wednesday the 25th,
The Stile, also on the University Campus, on Thursday the 26th,
The Winston on Sunday the 29th,
Our good friends at The Rockstone on Monday the 30th, and then the whole quizathon draws to a close with a grand finalé at;
Trago Lounge on Wednesday 2nd of May.

If you find yourself at a loose end, and fancy entering a team, either turn up, or check out the facebook event here.

Run the Great South Run for SSJ.
So far 20 wonderful supporters are running the Great South Run to raise funds for the Society of St James. We’re encouraging people to get together in teams of four so that they are running 40 miles in celerbation of 40 years of the Society. What better year to get involved than 2012?

If you are interested in adding to our number, please use the contact form:

Hello there, I’m Dave! You may remember me from… well actually, you probably don’t know me at all, so I’d best introduce myself! I’m one of the people who took part in the One Big Sleepout for SSJ. This was not actually my first interaction with this amazing charity. Back in November I was looking for a way for my colleagues and I to get out and and about and do some work in our community. We work for Starbucks Coffee Company and our local community is something we always like to be involved with, and to help in any way we can. We volunteered for a day and painted one of the shared houses that was needing a bit of refreshing in it’s kitchen and communal areas (that’s me on the left, apparently I needed some refreshing too!). As you can tell, it was a good day doing good!

Starbucks Dave

In early January I was approached by Dee and Sam to see if we’d be willing to get involved in the One Big Sleepout. I gave a tentative yes over Twitter and waited to see what’d come of this. In the meantime I had a quick brainstorm with some colleagues and thought it’d be a wonderful idea to serve the brave people taking part some complimentary coffee before they bed down for the night, and afterwards when they wake up from what I expected would be a rather uncomfortable twelve hours. Sorted! Good deed for the day done, back to work… right?
Wrong! I can’t quite explain how it happened, but before I knew it my colleague Charlie and I were filling out our registration forms and setting up our online fundraising pages. I think there was a part of my brain that was in the simplest way, curious. I liked getting my hands dirty and making a difference to the accommodation SSJ had arranged for people who were no longer homeless, I could see the direct effect it had on them seeing their new living space… but what about the rest of the story? How had it been before they found their feet and were able to have a roof over their head? I wanted to know. We very quickly develop comfort zones in our lives, and while at the One Big Sleepout there was a few dozen of us in the one location, it was certainly not going to be my normal nights sleep.

The night itself was a very unsettling experience. After Charlie and I had served coffees (and a few hot chocolates for good measure!) to everyone taking part we started getting our beds ready. We grabbed a few cardboard boxes and laid out our sleeping bags. It took all of five minutes and when we were done it started to sink in. This was home for the night. A stark contrast from my king size with double duvet, I think you’ll agree.

Our Beds

The night itself was uncomfortable, as I’d imagined. The city centre was loud, bustling, and unfortunately while we did attract some positive attention from the general public, the majority of people who encountered us were less than kind. Despite being in a large group, because we were on the floor in sleeping bags and trying to catch some shut eye, the fact was that to some people, we ceased being people ourselves. We ceased being entitled to the same rights as everyone else. I highly doubt these people would have knocked on the windows of every house they passed on the way home, or shouted abuse through letter boxes on the way either. Yet they took great delight in shouting at us and trying to wake the few who were managing to sleep.

During my fundraising one of my friends let me in on why he sponsored me “all of us are only ever a few wage packets away from being homeless”. Even at first glance you can tell there’s truth in this comment, but dig a littler deeper and it becomes even more sobering. I’m from Glasgow, so I have no family here, if I wasn’t in contact with them and I lost my job tomorrow, how long would it be before I was homeless?
Two months, and that’s being very generous, and the scenario I experienced in optimal conditions would no longer be a fundraising event, but my day to day life.

I’ll leave you with that thought; how long would it be for you? Hint: It’s a lot less than you think.

So let’s cut to the chase, because all anyone really wants to know is ‘what did you raise’? Our preliminary figure is over £1000 for our one big sleepout event, with money owing and sponsorship to roll in from the separate events. We guesstimate the entire umbrella event at having raised in excess of £3500.

And now for the ‘touchy-feely’ bit. Several things struck me in our sheltered, non-authentic attempt at viewing homelessness from a different angle.

1. The people of Southampton … some people are only too willing to share their views.
That can mean positive conversations and generous donations, but it can also mean criticism of homeless people, criticism of homeless (and surrounding issues) charities and criticism of events of this nature.

ALL of us had considered the weather. It is a very British thing to do, and it’s the first thing you think of when you think of someone being street homeless. I didn’t consider my other senses.

2. The city centre is light, very light, too light to sleep in.

3. It’s also LOUD … When I say loud, I mean persistent noise. Sadly, the video doesn’t demonstrate this, but I promise, it was really loud.
Traffic is background noise, but after clubs start kicking out at around 2am, you have a constant stream of people for the following two hours. Lots of shouting, fighting, people attempting to pee in inappropriate places, shouting abuse, or comments that they find funny, at you, and even people barking at you like dogs???

Once the people noise dies down, you battle the cold for under two hours before the buses start-up again, the street-sweeper goes up and down (very loudly and repeatedly) clearing the debris from the night before, and then the city clock chimes 6am.

My saddest take-home message is that homelessness, homeless people and people claiming to be homeless are desperately misunderstood. It saddens me to have had to explain to people, that even those claiming to be homeless tend to be doing so for a reason, and that we are there to assist those who are street begging to feed their drug addictions as much as we are for those who’ve found themselves without a roof over their heads for any other reason.

It’s not to late to add to the total funds raised from this ONE BIG Sleepout

event: http://www.bmycharity.com/charities/ssj
Just add a note to say you are responding to our ONE BIG Sleepout events.

Community groups throughout Hampshire, from girl guides to youth groups, students to churches, have run with this idea to hold ONE BIG Sleepout on the same night for the same charity to support the most vulnerable people in our area. Some of these groups are aiming to raise £10 a head, others have set the minimum sponsorship target at £40. Some have 200 participants, others are significantly smaller.

The Society of St James are thrilled to be holding their own event right in the heart of Southampton City Centre. Huge thanks must go to The Marlands for jumping through hoops to make this happen. They’ll be locking us behind their entrance gates (next to Starbucks) for 12 hours on the 9 March 2012. Starbucks’ are kindly greeting us with arrival drinks and welcoming us indoors for breakfast, again the drinks are complimentary, in the morning.

Ok, so it’s fair to say that Starbucks coffee night and morning, access to facilities and sleeping behind a locked gate isn’t a wholly authentic experience of homelessness. But the exposure to the cold, and the reactions of (sometimes inebriated) passers by on a Friday night, certainly will give a flavour of what some of our clients face.

But more than that, each of our 40 staff and supporters who participates is committing to trying to raise £40. Let’s assume they are all successful, let’s assume their passion means that they all exceed the £40, that’s over £1600 from that one event to help homeless people where we live and work. How much more will be raised by this being a Hampshire wide event?

There’s still time for you to jump on board with this, just nip over to our Sleepout page, fill in the form and we’ll let you know if there’s space for you and your mate(s) to join in.

Skinny Steve Beanies

Terry, a resident at Southampton Street, spoke to South Today’s Roger Finn this evening about just how hard it is sleeping rough in these conditions.

 Well, it’s pretty horrendous. It’s bad enough when you’re sleeping rough anyway; even in the warmer weather its’s horrible because you can never really sleep, because you’re worried about your own safety. But in this weather you can’t even sleep yourself, you know, you fall asleep for maybe an hour and then an hour later you wake up again because you’re so cold. You just end up walking the streets mainly, because it’s just to cold to sleep.

Paul Baker, service manager, explained that we have now taken in as many extra people as we can. The Southampton Street hostel is now full to capacity. All we can do now is provide blankets and sleeping bags to anyone who comes to the door, and get them in touch with the Street Homeless Prevention Team who will try and find them a place in another homeless service in the city.

With more sub-zero temperatures and snow forecast for the weekend, things are only going to get harder for homeless people in Southampton this weekend. Please spare them a thought and donate if you can.

Original post

Winter has come late to Southampton this year, but we are all shivering in the grip of sub-zero temperatures this week. As I sit in the office, wearing a scarf and fingerless gloves and with the heating on full, I can’t imagine how painful it must be to be sleeping rough in this weather.

BBC South Today will be broadcasting live from our Southampton Street hostel on Friday 3rd February at 6.30pm, where our residents and staff will talk about the impact of the icy temperatures and the city’s cold weather arrangements for homeless people. We and other homelessness agencies in the city make extra bed spaces available in our hostels when the night time temperatures drop. Our Chief Executive, Trevor Pickup, will also be featured on Wave 105 over the next couple of days.

Since prolonged exposure to the cold can lead to serious health issues, including hypothermia and frostbite, we and the other homelessness services in Southampton do all that we can to ensure that no-one is forced to sleep rough.

One person went to rather extreme lengths this week to show his support for homeless people during this cold snap. Laurence Gibbons, a Journalism student at Southampton Solent University and member of Radio Sonar, the student radio station, slept rough and spent an incredible 21 hours on the streets of the city. He and our friend Skinny Steve braved temperatures as low as -3 degrees to raise the profile of homelessness and funds for the Society of St James in the process – Laurence, you are a complete star!

Laurence prepares for a cold night with Skinny Steve and Georgie from Radio Sonar

Of course, if you want to support homeless people in Southampton during this cold weather, you don’t need to go as far as Laurence.

You can help by donating to the Society of St James here, to ensure that we can offer a bed for the night to anyone who needs it.