Crisis UK - Homelessness Charity Resources and Reports

I have been a volunteer with Crisis UK in Birmingham since February 2017. I am very impressed with their research and campaigning to end homelessness in the UK. They have a fantastic learning programme to help 'members' (our term for homeless individuals) get off the street, out of hostels, B&B's, sofa surfing, stop sleeping in cars and other places and back into employment and a decent house to live in.

I am creating this blog post with a series of links to reports and resources to assist anyone to understand homelessness better. This way I can just share this link and you can learn more by downloading the reports or listen to the radio programmes, watch the videos etc.

I hope the resources will prove useful for you and your friends and family to better understand the plight of the homeless and maybe you can share a few minutes to create awareness in your network and community, donate a few pennies, spend a few hours per month donating your time for the many charities that exist across the UK.  I appreciate your interest and curiosity to learn more. I will continue to add further resources as I become aware of them, so make sure to bookmark this page.

1. Join the #everybodyin campaign and pledge your support.

2. 10 year plan to end homelessness in the UK executive summary

3. 10 year plan to end homelessness full report

4. Rough sleepers’ experiences of violence and abuse on the streets of England and Wales

5. An examination of the scale and impact of enforcement interventions on street homeless people in England and Wales

6. The creation and use of better evidence for a world without homelessness - Centre for Homelessness Impact

7. Understanding the models of Housing First in England

8. The picture of Housing First in England

9. About Housing First England (website)

10. Homelessness and Addiction: Getting Clean & Off the Streets

11. A home for as long as someone needs it, as well as meaningful work in our social enterprises, by Emmaus.

12. The big idea that can help end homelessness.

13. The Stingray, a model and platform to utilise and repurpose unused and derelict public houses.

14. The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 - All you need to know.

15. Counting the deaths of homeless people around the UK

16. No Second Night Out (NSNO) was launched on 1 April 2011 as a pilot project aimed at ensuring those who find themselves sleeping rough in central London for the first time need not spend a second night on the streets.

    In 2018-19 there were 8,855 people seen sleeping rough in London. Of these, 5,529 people slept rough for the first time in 2018-19. Our aim is to ensure there is a rapid response to new rough sleepers, and that they are provided an offer that means they do not have to sleep out for a second night. Other projects exist to support those already rough sleeping and living on the streets.

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Homelessness

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Crisis at Christmas 2017

#endhomelessness I started as an event volunteer with Crisis UK, Birmingham Skylight in February 2017. I am learning about the plight of the homeless and appreciate a lot more about what happens at Crisis UK. Their Christmas event across the UK, is the largest single volunteer event in Europe (circa 11,000 in one day) and I am really looking forward to being part of it and supporting those less fortunate on Christmas Day. If you’d like to sponsor me for Christmas Day, please donate what you can afford, even if it’s the equivalent of the cost of a Costa or Starbucks? Thank you so much!

Just click the preview below to get to the virginmoneygiving.com donation page.

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/michaeldegroot

So far I have been involved with the following events.

1. 25th April, 2017 - 50th year event in Birmingham handing out flyers in the freezing cold, whilst videos playing on a massive screen just outside St. Philip’s Cathedral.
2. 8th July, 2017 - Hodge Hill Carnival. Manning a stand where we were giving away in return for a donation knitted teddy bears and other characters.
3. 12th July, 2017 - Member celebration event at Carrs Lane Church near Moor Street station Birmingham. Announcing the presenters and general volunteer.
4. 5th September, 2017 - Joined ‘Volunteer Voices’, volunteer group at Birmingham Skylight, discussing volunteering, events and better information for volunteers, like the ‘Get the help you need’ cards for discussing with rough sleepers.
5. 5th December, 2017 - Crisis member celebration at St. Martin’s Church Bull Ring, Birmingham, general volunteering.
6. 25th December, 2017 - Reception duty, Serving food & refreshments, Cleaning / tidying duty, Setting up before guests arrive, Chatting with guests .

I am looking forward to continuing my volunteering journey in 2018 and I have some ideas of my own to highlight the plight of the homeless.

Instead of focussing on what I can buy myself for Christmas, my focus is on how can I help the homeless better.

I am grateful to Crisis for the amazing work they do and of course I appreciate too that there are many other charities working with the homeless, big 🙌 to all of them!

Michael de Groot

Together we will end homelessness

Our definition of ending homelessness

Following consultation across Britain with more that 400 homelessness experts, including 100 people with lived experience of homelessness, we have produced a definition of ending homelessness that give us tangible targets to measure the plan's progress against:

• No one sleeping rough
• No one forced to live in transient or dangerous accommodation such as tents, squats and non-residential buildings
• No one living in emergency accommodation such as shelters and hostels without a plan for rapid rehousing into affordable, secure and decent accommodation
• No one homeless as a result of leaving a state institution such as prison or the care system
• Everyone at immediate risk of homelessness gets the help they need that prevents it happening

Official video for Streets Of London, performed by Ralph McTell featuring the Crisis Choir and guest vocalist Annie Lennox. Buy the single here from CD: https://ralphmctell.tmstor.es/cart/product.php?id=35935&cur=GBP iTunes: http://smarturl.it/StreetsofLondon Amazon: http://amzn.to/2A1OSxA Google Play: http://bit.ly/2AW2Wc1 The track is also available to stream on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/4v0KqMqzW4PPXzck6nqKGy All proceeds go to Crisis and the work the charity does to help thousands of people on their journey out of homelessness every year.