At our March speaker meeting, SI of East Grinstead were delighted to welcome back Ian Wilkins, Head of Fundraising & Relationships at Crawley Open House. The Club has been supporting Open House for a number of years and Ian has visited on several occasions throughout that time to update us on their work.
The idea of Open House was conceived 30 years ago by a group of three formidable women. At first accommodation was provided in two Portacabins which were donated following the construction of the Channel Tunnel but in 1999 the charity moved to its present premises in Three Bridges.
Ian has been working with Open House for 22 years, first as a volunteer and then in his current role. He told us that the present is the toughest time for the charity in all those 22 years. Every night Open House’s high-support hostel in Three Bridges and their several move-on houses in the community are ‘home’ to 60 men and women (some with dogs and occasionally cats!). Around 62% of residents are resettled somewhere more permanent.
In addition to the residents, Open House welcomes around 50 people per day in their drop-in Resource Centre where they can shower, enjoy something to eat, wash their clothes or benefit from the various advice teams and agencies that visit. Employability and life-skills classes in art, cooking, barista skills, music, bike maintenance and help in getting your CSCS card to work on a building site are all part of the programme. Open House’s philosophy is that skills are as important as a roof over your head. Crawley being so close to Gatwick has a large population of refugees so English Language classes are provided for them. This situation has made it necessary for Open House to provide translators, special menus and sometimes procedures that do not conflict with the refugees’ cultural beliefs. We were shocked to hear that once refugees gain permission to stay in this country, they are forced to leave their accommodation in local hotels without anywhere to live or any work to go to.
Recent changes to National Insurance have increased the charity’s costs by £28,000 as well as making it more difficult for local companies to donate.
Ian’s talk was both interesting and motivating and made us aware of how vital our ongoing support, albeit limited, is to their survival. Their work is only the tip of the iceberg when we learned that there are 354,000 homeless in England, including 161,000 children. This includes those in temporary accommodation but there are at least 4,000 street sleepers in England every night, the majority in London with the second highest number being in Brighton, very close to home!
Rosemary Stone
At Easter Jane O arranged the delivery of 20 Easter Eggs to the Open House, where they were very gratefully received.
