R2R has successfully created our profile and entered the GALAXY Hot Chocolate Fund! The Galaxy Hot Chocolate Fund runs from 7th November until 26th February 2017. Awards of £300 are provided for community projects. Five awards of £300 will be provided each week – four chosen by a panel of judges and one chosen through a voting system.
This year also sees the addition of the Outstanding Volunteer Award giving you chance to nominate someone to win a hot chocolate hamper.
The first awards of £300 are on 14th November.
Please visit the site and vote for R2R. Our drop-in guys and girls are already enjoying free jars and sachets of hot chocolate sent to us just for joining in.
http://www.galaxyhotchocolate.com/fund/profiles/routes-to-roots-poole-cio
Calling all lovers of the Great British Breakfast, or croissants and pastries if you prefer.
Make a date with your friends this winter! Invite them round for breakfast in December, January or February. Ask them for a small contribution and donate the money you raise, no matter how large or small, to Routes to Roots’ annual Big Breakfast appeal.
For the seventh year, we are again joining forces with the Fisherman’s Café on Poole Quay to provide rough sleepers with a hot breakfast. Last year we offered this meal for 18 weeks, sustaining 52 individual homeless people, an increase of 11% over 2014-15. Each breakfast costs £4.50 to provide so this provision alone cost the charity £4054.50 (901 breakfasts eaten).
It costs £4.50 to provide a hot breakfast for a rough sleeper. Could you buy just one guy a breakfast for one day, or a whole week?
The Co-op, Blandford Road, Hamworthy BH15 4BH has adopted Routes to Roots as their chosen charity and will be raising money for us through their membership and 5p bag sales until March next year. Please remember this when you next shop there.
Every time members choose Co-op branded products and services and use their Co-op Membership card (subject to Membership T&Cs), 1% of what you spend will go to your chosen cause. Members can change your choice at any time until the end of the giving period on 18th March 2017. If members don’t pick a cause then their 1% is shared out equally between all the local causes in their community. Any funds raised for Routes To Roots will be distributed shortly after the end of the giving period.
Breakfast provision continues to be an extremely important part of our outreach work to rough sleepers. This year we saw a rise in the numbers accessing this service, up by 11% to 52 individuals, and in the number of breakfasts claimed, up by 19% to 901, over the 18 weeks we offered the service. We know that homelessness is an issue across the country and Poole is no exception to the ever-increasing numbers who find themselves without permanent accommodation.
If you can help us maintain this service, please consider making a donation now for the coming winter.
The Trustees of Routes to Roots are delighted to invite you to a service of Celebration and Thanksgiving for the work being carried out in Poole to alleviate the problems facing Homeless people in our town. We will be particularly celebrating the fact that at the end of the year we were able to take 3 vulnerable individuals off the streets and offer them supported accommodation in our very own ‘Amos House’. We are excited that Pastor Pete, founder of the charity Green Pastures which made this possible, will be joining us as our guest speaker. Following the service there will be displays, videos and refreshments to enjoy. Trustees, volunteers and some of our homeless friends will all be there. PLEASE come and MEET us and PRAY with us that TOGETHER we will hear more about what GOD is calling us to do here in POOLE.
Sunday 24 January 2016, 3.00pm-5.00pm
United Reformed Church, Skinner St., Poole BH15 1RQ
This Christmas we say a fond farewell to Eddie and Sue who will be cooking Christmas Day lunch for the final time this year and ‘retiring’ from team leading and volunteering after many years of service. Thank you for all their support and kindness to our clients over the years. At this season of goodwill we also say thank you to Waitrose who donated a turkey for Christmas Day lunch, Waitrose customers who rewarded our carol singing efforts with over £150, Asda customers who filled a shopping cart with food, Poole Contact Centre for shoeboxes, and Skinner Street URC congregation and neighbours for parcels and presents for the guys.
Sue and Eddie at work on a summer BBQ for the guys
Poole Estate and Letting Agents, Carter Shaw have come up with a great idea to help the homeless. They have begun a campaign to collect old and unwanted keys to help the homeless in Poole. They have already had a good response and are hoping to roll this out as a continued campaign rather than just a Christmas idea. They have now contacted Routes to Roots to see what support they can give us. Following the launch of the campaign, they had people wanting to make cash donations, so we have sent along a collection box.
Carter Shaw, 446 Ashley Road
http://www.cartershaw.co.uk
Many thanks to Quaker Homeless Action for a grant of £3000, which will be spent on the renovation work at Amos House, our supported accommodation for three of Poole’s rough sleepers.
We still need to raise money for the ongoing costs of this housing. Want to help us win funding this Christmas? Starbucks has nominated us to make some noise and win a #RedCupGrant. Tweet @R2R_Poole with #RedCupCheer2015 up until Dec 6th and make some noise!
Please help us win funds by sharing our project on Facebook/other: #RedCupCheer.
https://www.neighbourly.com/project/5645e84e8f60fd0f204676fb/feed/
From September Routes to Roots will be able to offer several important new outreach services to its clients in Poole through its regular drop-ins at Skinner Street URC.
From the 7th September, Poole Addictions Community Team (PACT) will be offering a service on a fortnightly basis at the Monday afternoon drop-in. PACT will be providing information on Blood Borne Viruses and offering testing, vaccinations and delivering a confidential Harm Minimisation service i.e. needle exchange and advice. PACT hopes to include visits from their specialist alcohol nurses in the near future. PACT is keen to support easier access into services for clients.
From 17th September Poole Citizens Advice will be attending R2R Thursday afternoon drop-ins to engage with clients to inform them about the wide range of areas in which CAB may be able to help, such as benefit applications, housing, debt, family matters. Clients who need specific advice and help will be able to make an appointment to see a CAB Adviser in the R2R office.
The charity is also working together with Healthwatch Dorset, the local consumer champion for health and care, to improve health (particularly emergency) provision for homeless people, including free NHS check-ups through the Tooth Bus mobile dental service. Their first visit is set for Monday 9 November during the drop-in and throughout the afternoon.
Gabi Sanger-Stevens, responsible for management services, comments: “We know our clients experience problems getting access to GP surgeries, making health appointments, contacting dentists etc. without a phone or easy access to the internet. Many GPs won’t accept bookings face to face. So, we have found that people have had to wait for the Routes to Roots’ office to open so they can use our phone – by which time that day’s appointments are all booked up. It is also hard for someone who is homeless to build up the courage to go into a busy GP surgery, as they feel as if they are being judged: then to be sent away and told to make an appointment by phone can be very upsetting.
“We also know that engaging with services such as the CAB and PACT in their offices can be daunting – it is not easy to keep appointments when you have a chaotic life of rough sleeping or making ends meet. We really appreciate the support of these organisations in bringing these vital services to our clients at a place where they feel safe and can easily make use of them. It will positively affect their general wellbeing as well as contributing to their ability to move back into society.”
