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Angie and John went on outreach tonight in N.W. Leicestershire to search for a homeless man living in a strange location. Several residents had contacted us to tell us about the man. It was extremely foggy but because the information given was so good, our intrepid duo were able to log the coordinates into the sat nav and drive straight to the person. He wouldn’t let us take him to the night shelter so we will contact N.W. Leics Council’s Housing Choices to see what can be done about housing him. Meanwhile a local resident has agreed to liaise between us so we can keep a line of communication open. The lovely kind local residents have given the man clothes, bedding and a lot of food and drinks.
Not all homeless people live in towns,
We had a call out to Belmont common a few weeks ago by a local landowner, because a homeless person that had started sleeping there had become ill. We went straight over and called an ambulance and got the lad into hospital, where he was treated over several days. The landowner looked after his belongings. We visited him in hospital and found out he was from Stoke hand had many emotional difficulties. He felt his family had given up on him so he left with no idea of where to go. He ended up following the River Dove and eventually set up camp with a sleeping tent and toilet tent. See pics. The floods came and his camp was under water with him in the tent! He took what he could salvage and after a couple of days ended up on Belmont Common where he became ill.
Whilst in hospital, we found out his family's details in Stoke and contacted them. They were naturally very worried and came over to pick him up and take him home. He is there now and getting some good support.
Late last year the same landowner called us as he was very concerned over a man sleeping on Belmont Common. He had never seen a homeless person before and was very distressed. The person was from Coalville and again had issues. We phoned N.W. Leics Council, Housing Choices to see if we could get him off the street. He was a very vulnerable person on many counts. We could have taken him to a nearer Council but to get help unfortunately, a homeless person needs to show they have a connection to the area to get help. Ridiculous since Housing Benefit is paid by National Government Funding, but that is how it is.
We took him to Housing Choices and they offered him temporary accommodation to get him off the street.
An odd point. Belmont Common is off the beaten track, yet people from other areas seem to find it.
Behind the scenes we have a huge amount of admin work going on. Our charity application took many hours over many months. Our accounts are a constant source of work and balance sheets have to be produced every month for committee meetings. Our Co-ordinators produce monthly reports too. Our website and social media need to be taken care of and much more. We have our ID operation too. this is very time consuming but having current ID is everything. We source and order many UK birth certificates. Foreign ID means many hours of dealing with Embassies and Consulates. They are expensive too! When ID is handed over, it can be euphoric. That persons life has changed. We all received a huge hug last night from a gent who can now go out and hunt down employment because he has a birth certificate. His was a particularly difficult one to track down but perseverance pays.
MESSAGE FROM THE CHARITY COMMISSION. PLEASE SHARE
QUOTE:
We are satisfied that BURTON HOPE is a charity and it has been entered onto the Register of Charities with the Registered Charity Number 1187330.
Now let's make things happen 🙂
Some exciting changes are happening at Burton HOPE.
1 - Our public liability and volunteers insurance has always only covered any volunteer, 16 years old and above. We have now had that restriction removed which means we are able to allow Duke of Edinburgh candidates from Bronze to Gold to do skills or volunteering with us. This has meant us adopting a child welfare policy, appointing a Child Welfare Officer and much other admin but we think it is worth it to allow us to help develop our young people.
2 - With a few amendments to our constitution and objectives, we think we are in the final stage of our Charity Application. With any luck, we will become a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) in the very near future.
Burton HOPE is a member group of Support Staffordshire and SCVYS (Staffordshire Council of Voluntary Youth Services). To become a member organisation requires having a suitable constitution and various policies plus public liability insurance. Since we are members, we obviously have these items in place.
Both organisations are there for the support of the voluntary sector and are mainly funded by Staffordshire County Council. Support Staffs has regular forums to allow organisations to present their work and to allow networking. We always attend these forums. We presented a goodwill story, as requested, at their December forum as a festive touch. The networking is absolutely brilliant. We all introduce ourselves and can recruit new partners to work with on all sorts of issues from mental health to rape, from employment to addiction etc.
