During this pandemic, we as a club have not stood still. We have tried to help out our linked charities and have also tried to reach out and help others. As a result, we started to help the winter night shelter, with one of our members delivering shepherds pies or curries every week since the first lockdown and this has led us to adopt them as one of our linked charities. Below Sara Millington, Communications Manager from WNSMK, has provided us with a little back ground of what they have been doing during this pandemic.
 |
“We are delighted that Soroptimists MK are willing to help shine a spotlight on our work with the homeless and vulnerable at this time. Homelessness can affect anyone if they don’t have the support of family or friends when they reach a point of crisis, and we see many women and girls in need of help in addition to men. Covid has changed the homelessness landscape and we are seeing a growing number of people who never expected to find themselves in crisis coming to us for help and advice, and we are determined to be there for all who need us all year round, not just in the winter. |
We put a personal support plan in place to help people access the services and support they need to move onwards and upwards with their lives and are able to help many people before they find themselves on the streets. We rely on donations and fundraising to do what we do and are glad the Soroptimists MK are helping us to raise awareness.”
(Sara Millington, Communications Manager, Winter Night Shelter Milton Keynes WNSMK) commsmanager@winternightsheltermk.com
The Winter Night Shelter Milton Keynes: Helping the Homeless through Covid
 |
For the last 10 years we have been providing supervised overnight accommodation and meals to homeless and vulnerable people who would otherwise be rough sleeping in Milton Keynes during the coldest months of the year.
We work in partnership with many churches and community centers across the city who provide their facilities as an overnight venue, and we provide year-round welfare support from our center Unity Park Station (the old bus station in town). We not only support rough sleepers but help a growing number of individuals who are not yet homeless but faced with crisis, in order to ensure they don’t end up on the streets in the first place. |
This past winter, due to Covid-19, we were able to run our overnight accommodation in the usual way. Central government made funding available for local councils to run an ‘Everyone In’ policy and offer emergency hotel rooms to rough sleepers. Instead, we have been focusing on the provision of welfare support and food provision for those who need it. Our Welfare Team enable our guests to recover lost ID, access benefits, access drug and alcohol support services, to obtain housing advice, move on to longer-term accommodation and to find work. Each month we are serving hundreds of home-cooked meals and giving out supplies and food parcels.
Covid in general and lockdown in particular means that most support services have been suspended or have been offering online access only. We have worked hard to keep our doors open safely for people to continue to receive face-to-face help because some people really need it. One of our guests recently told Kathy our Welfare Manager that, “You’re the only person I’ve seen face to face for help in weeks. I really struggle with filling in forms and trying to get hold of people by phone, I don’t know what I’d do without you.” We had one man arrive with us recently looking visibly distressed. He spoke to Donna who leads the team and said, “Can I speak to you?” He showed her a letter from the NHS which said a counselling appointment he had been waiting for was postponed due to Covid, to a date far in the future. He said, “The thing is, I need help. I need to talk to someone, I’m in a state.” Donna said, “Hang on, just stay there!” and spoke to the counsellor who was on site that day and said she could fit him in straight away. He was given a cup of tea and sat down to talk. As he was leaving, he came up to Donna and said, “Do you know what? That’s the first time for ages that I felt someone genuinely cared, and just coming here today it feels like it’s changed my life.”
Some people love Zoom. Some can’t cope with it. Some can fill in application forms online just fine. Some people struggle with reading or operating a computer. Some are able to call a helpline and know what to ask for. Some people don’t even have a phone. Some things can wait. Some things can’t. That’s why we are still open. The numbers of people coming to us for help have been steadily climbing, indeed it has doubled since the start of the year and there are now more than 75 people being supported by the welfare team in some way. In that same time, they have been able to assist around 30 people into longer-term accommodation to start rebuilding their lives.
The Covid legacy for us this year is that we are going from being a ‘seasonal’ charity to needing to provide operations year-round because of a growing need. Usually we are ‘off-peak’ over spring and summer, focusing on fundraising and preparations for autumn. However, we do not want to reduce our services at a time when many people need us more than ever. We are therefore making plans to maintain and build on our current food and welfare operations, to bridge the gap between last winter and the next in a way that we have never had to do before. This is a huge challenge following a year when community fundraising has been extremely limited. We greatly appreciate the opportunity to share with people about the work we are doing right now and hope people will support us to help the homeless and vulnerably housed people who rely on our services.
To find out more about the Winter Night Shelter Milton Keynes visit www.winternightsheltermk.com.
Click here to see the latest newsletter. Click here to view a virtual tour