StreetWise Winter 2010 – Quarterly Newsletter Contents Dear Friends 2 CCM Diary 3 Into the sunset 4 Thanksgiving & fund-raising..........5 Coffee Shop Manager 6 Volunteer Coordinator 7 LITE Course 8 Chris 9 Peter 9 Landfill banquet 10 Lisa 11 Client Christmas Party Appeal 11 Dear Friends “Stir one another up to love and good works” Life on the streets is not easy. I wonder how many of us would cope if we did not know where our next meal is coming from, or where we will sleep tonight. I pray never to find out. After a while it ceases to be a surprise that most of the people who come through our doors are addicted, or way or another. Mostly it is alcohol or drugs, often both, sometimes gambling or something else. Some are on the streets, at least in part, because of the addiction; but many of those who do not start off with an addiction soon develop one, simply as a coping mechanism. Life on the street is frequently painful, and the drink or the drugs dulls the pain. What never ceases to be a surprise is the way that folk on the streets genuinely care for each other. This sounds very condescending – I do not mean it that way. It is easy to look down on them, but they still retain a vestige of humanity, they can still behave decently every now and then. I am saying that I frequently feel put to shame by the kindness and generosity displayed by people who have so little. When all you have is one cigarette, and no money for any more, and you still give it away to someone more desperate than you are – that is real, sacrificial love. Over and over again, I hear the same story: ‘ordinary’ people look down on me, they despise me, but the people I meet on the streets accept me for who I am, just the way I am. Yes, it is true that they will cheat and steal from each other, but only out of necessity most of the time. They may try to kill each other in a fight, but ten minutes later they will probably be arm in arm, sharing a drink. Yes, it gets nasty at times, but deep feelings produce strong reactions. These strong relationships enable people to survive on the street, by looking out for each other. But your greatest strength is often your greatest weakness, and they are also the hardest part of moving away from the streets. Life on the streets may be hard, but at least you have people around who care for you and look out for you. On your own in a flat, what do you have? When you start to try and re-integrate into society, how do you build new friendships with people you have nothing in common with, people who used to pass you in the gutter and ignore you. It’s hard to escape the feeling: “I may not be on the street any more, but I am still the same person you despised.” Building a new life is tough, especially when you are sure that the friendship now on offer depends on me behaving myself, keeping the rules and staying respectable. If I lapse, if I end up on the street again, will you still want to know me? We need to offer genuine friendship to people while they are living on the street. Not only because it is an effective tool, the best way to help them move on and get help, but also because it is the only way to build the trust that is needed to rebuild a life. If you cared for me while I was drunk, maybe I can start to believe that your care for me while I am sober could be genuine. Sometimes in church circles we hide behind a respectable image, wanting people to see us as good Christians, hiding our weakness and imperfections, but Hebrews 10:24 tells us to “stir one another up to love and good works.” The only way to do this is through genuine love, and accepting people just the way they are. Perhaps, if we want to learn to love one another in church, we might learn a lesson from the depth of commitment and loving acceptance demonstrated by so many people on the streets. We need to offer genuine friendship to people while they are living on the street, because that may be the very best way for us to discover what genuine friendship is really like. Paul Hazelden CCM Diary November 2010 Monday 22, 7.30pm – 9.00pm: Prayer Meeting (12 City Road) Friday 26, 1.00 – 2.00pm: Prayer Meeting (12 City Road) Saturday 27, 12.30 – 3.00pm: Opening Celebration (Stapleton Road Chapel) December 2010 Wednesday 15, 1.00 – 3.00pm: Clients Christmas Party (Elim Church, Jamaica Street) Monday 27 – Friday 31: Shop & Office CLOSED January 2011 Saturday 8, 9.45am – 1.00pm: BCAN Training: Homelessness (Trinity Tabernacle) Monday 10, 6.15 – 8.30pm: Board Meeting Wednesday 12, 7.30 – 9.30pm: BCAN Training: Homelessness (City Road) Thursday 13, 7.30 – 9.30pm: BCAN Homeless Forum Friday 21 – Sunday 23: Team Weekend Away Monday 24, 7.30 – 9.00pm: Prayer meeting (12 City Road) Into the sunset... After eleven and a half years leading the LITE project the time has come to pack my saddlebag, unhitch my trusty steed and ride the range. As I said at the recent AGM, there have been highs and lows, huge encouragements and bitter disappointments. As people say “that is the nature of the job”. One thing it has never been is boring! To see some of our clients making strides to improve their lives and holding down paid work, is immensely rewarding. Whereas, at the other end of the spectrum, attending the funerals of students, who have completed the LITE course, started moving on, but then overdosed on street drugs is incredibly sad. They are all real people with circumstances, some of their own making, others they had no control of, that have battered them and robbed them of the love and security that most of us take for granted. “There but for the grace of God, go I”. I am quite excited about the prospect of retirement and often say to Gill when I am retired we can do this, that and the other. She replies “But you seem to forget I am retired already and have a full week!” Thank you to all the staff, volunteers and supporters I have had the privilege of knowing and working with at CCM over the years. Thank you for your faithfulness, dedication to the work and encouragement. So new ranges to ride and new adventures to be had. Adiós Amigos, see some of you around no doubt, Andy Fund-raising Well it has been an eventful few weeks within the fund-raising department, I have organised the fantabulous (a combination of fantastic and fabulous) opening ceremony which will be a wonderful occasion where we will praise the Lord for God blessing us with Carpenter House. I have also dispatched a number of grant applications and was able to speak at Kensington Road Baptist, Elim, East Bristol Partnership and Alma churches. They were all very welcoming and warm and hopefully some long lasting relationships have been started there. As mentioned the Opening Celebration and Thanksgiving Service will take place on Saturday 27 November at Stapleton Road Chapel. The ceremony will involve a blessing of Carpenter House, eating a meal in the new premises and finally a thanksgiving service in Stapleton Road Chapel. If you do wish to attend please RSVP to jonathan@crisis-centre.org.uk. We held our AGM at Trinity Tabernacle again this year, and this was another great success. Many from the Crisis Centre spoke very eloquently and there was a real sense of something special is going to happen over the next year within the ministry and the move to Carpenter House. On that note, the next big event will be the Sleep Out on Friday 4 March. if you want to get involved it is not too early to register interest (same address as above). We want to top the £10,000 raised last year and with it bring a greater awareness of homeless people on the streets of Bristol. Finally, I would like to thank everyone for their prayers and support over the past few months helping me to settle into my job here, you have all been fantastic. I am also still looking for a keen volunteer to help me fund-raise and so feel free to email me if you are available to give some time for this. Jonathan Swithinbank From Alan As always there is so much to share. Approaching Christmas, I am personally looking forward to a few days off, maybe reading a good book, having some good food and valuable time with my family. There are however many people who will not be as fortunate as myself. Quite recently Arnett McCluskey (one of our trustees), Connor (one of our volunteers, who also works for the BBC) and I carried out an all night homeless count. It rained all night. We started off at the Julian Trust, which is a great organisation opening five nights a week to provide night accommodation for up to eighteen people. We were there around 9.30pm. While we were there, they had to turn people away because they were full. Among those were three women. We continued by driving and walking around the city looking out for rough sleepers. By 7.30am we had counted twenty one people sleeping rough, five of these being women. I must say, while I don't believe anyone should have to sleep rough I found if harder to see these ladies sleeping rough. Working in the Drop in Centre we have got to know many of the rough sleepers. As it had rained all night there were many we didn't see. We believe that due to the weather they would have bedded down in safe, hidden away places. Our estimate on numbers of rough sleepers in Bristol is in the region of sixty to eighty, with numbers changing daily. With your help this past year we have helped three hundred and twelve people off the streets. Some of these people have gone into Christian Communities,and some to rehab or other forms of accommodation. With your help we have provided meals for around 80,000 people over this past year. With your prayers and financial support we are moving to Carpenter House on Stapleton Road. This has recently been named as 'the most dangerous road in Great Britain'. Over the past few months I have been going over to Stapleton Road and have been doing some shopping there. This has allowed me to get to know shopkeepers and some of the community. The people here are no different to any other community and those I have come into contact with are really nice people. I don’t believe calling Stapleton Road “the most dangerous road in Great Britain” is fair to the community and I am very much looking forward to the move and getting to know this area better. This year it has been my privilege to talk in many schools in Bristol and surrounding areas about the consequence of using drugs and alcohol, the breakdown of relationships, and homelessness which it sometimes leads to. I would like to thank the schools, staff and children for all there support and for the food donated to CCM from the Harvest festival collections. To all our supporters and readers of Streetwise I would like to wish you a very blessed Christmas. If you would like me to speak to you as an individual or to any groups or churches I’d love to hear from you Alan Goddard CCM 0117 942 3088 Mobile 07967 596589 Email alan@crisis-centre.org.uk If you know of anyone who may benefit from our help please contact me. From the Volunteer Support Coordinator First as always a big thank you to our volunteers (and to those who support them: “volunteer widows/widowers” as it were). A particular thank you to Potters House church who have run our Friday evening session for several years, but have to pull back now, at least for a time, during their church relocation. This means we are in need of a new team for alternate Friday evenings. Equally for your prayers, we would like to open earlier in the day to offer breakfast to clients, but this will depend on volunteers being available from about 9.30, which is a big ask. Please pray about this and if you or someone you know might be interested, please get in touch, without feeling that you are committing yourself to anything in the first instance. The good news is that we have quite a number of people volunteering for lunch times, and Wed evenings, although we will need more than we have for some days. At the moment this would be Tuesday and Friday lunch time, but the situation changes all the time. In Carpenter House there will be greater diversity of opportunities including cleaning and simply being available to talk with clients. Other things will be on offer as we settle in and develop the ministry there. Watch this space! If I can help you or indeed you would like to help us, you can contact me at the office or via email: steve@crisis-centre.org.uk Steve Smith LITE SNAP SHOTS We are just today (04/10) finishing the LITE 1 course which has focused on building confidence. 8 students qualified for a course completion certificate and 2 for attendance only. 2 of our students are about to join a mentoring scheme to hopefully help them transition into employment. 7 students have signalled an intention to do LITE 2 which begins on November 22nd. We also have another 10 clients who have indicated they want to start LITE 2 (although you never know how many will turn up for that first session!). There is a constant stream of enquiries for the LITE course from outside agencies but we have been mindful of increasing numbers attending from those who use the Wild Goose. A client survey in October indicated that 80% had not done any course in the last year yet 50% were very positive about doing one to enable them to change their life situation. We have a significant number now from the Goose waiting to attend LITE. We are also discussing relaunching “Sorted” in the new year (after the move), this will give clients an opportunity to explore Christianity for themselves. Finally, a huge thank you to Andy Luxford for the amazing work he has done over the last 11 years (and for helping me learn the ropes these last two months). We pray that God will continue to bless him and Gill in retirement. Thank you for your interest and prayers. Stuart Leitch From Chris Over the past few months we have been supporting a young man (call him Peter) who came to us through contact with Lisa. We were able to place him into one of the Christian communities and has been doing well, but he is still struggling with various issues that he has had for a while. He seems to be finding family life hard to adjust to but we feel that this will be a slow process. God is working in his life in many ways so please pray that he is able to see that Jesus loves him and will help him to become the man God wants him to be. It is becoming more and more apparent the number of people that we are helping with mental health problems. It can be extremely difficult to know how to help people with severe mental health problems, so please pray for the people who we meet and need help. Pray that we are able to know where to refer them to. One lady (call her Beth) who we have know for several years has recently accepted help in the form of a flat which she can use several evenings a week, this has the possibility to become permanent but will need us to help her with the benefits, so please pray for her. Over the past few weeks we have been talking about a female only night shelter. The more this is discussed the clearer it becomes that this is a much needed service in Bristol, and one which could benefit many woman in many ways. Please pray for guidance and wisdom for everyone involved that the right decision is made in God’s name. Chris Cherrill (Assistant Coffee Shop Manager) From Peter Hello, my name is Peter. I used to be homeless on the streets of Bristol. I regularly used the facilities of the Wild Goose. I would go there for a meal, usually twice a day. It was good to be able to come in from the cold and speak to people. I noticed a little sign on the wall saying 'would you like to try rehab, we may be able to help'. I spoke to a member of staff and explained that I was an alcoholic and homeless. My problem with alcohol had caused my marriage to fail. I was at my lowest and knew I wanted to try to get my life back on track. After sharing all my circumstances with a member of staff a community detox was arranged. Within two weeks I found myself living in a Christian community. Having a family around me again and other people from similar backgrounds allowed me to begin a road to recovery. About two week into being in the Christian community I gave my life to the Lord and I have never looked back. Days can still be quite hard but I have not drunk and I now have a reason to look to the future. Two years have now passed. I am working, happy and content with my life. Praise God for Crisis Centre Ministries and the work they do. Landfill Banquet The first Landfill Banquet took place at my own church, Clevedon Baptist Church. Everyone I have spoken to has said how much they enjoyed the evening. The purpose of the Banquet was to bring awareness of the three charities we were fund-raising for and the work they do. The charities were FareShare South West which distributes surplus food which would otherwise go to landfill, Alabaré, which supports people with drug and alcohol problems and ourselves, Crisis Centre Ministries. Alabaré and ourselves are partly funded by the charity shop 'Changing Lives in Clevedon' which deals primarily with furniture and other items. A short talk was given by someone from each charity, a quartet was playing while guests were tucking into some lovely food all of which was supplied by FareShare. All the food used was well within use by dates and had never reached the shops. We also held an enthusiastic auction of food hampers and other items. This was a fantastic night, and I would love to see other churches host a similar event. This give a great opportunity for socialising as well as an opportunity to learn more about the work charities do and raise funds. It was great to see how other charities can work together and enhance each others work. If you would like to know more about holding an event please contact Alan Goddard. Thank you. From Lisa Last year was our 25th anniversary and I was hoping we would be able to do something extra special to mark the occasion, but with the lack of funds and time we were unable to do something spectacular. Little did I know that when a film crew came in on a Tuesday evening asking to do a documentary that it would be the Secret Millionaire and we would be given such a vast amount of money helping us to buy Carpenter House. I just cannot describe the excitement of having a new large building, where we can provide more seating, a larger better equipped kitchen, extra space which can be utilised for the good of our clients and staff. I am often asked for success stories that have happened with the people I meet and help, and I have seen so many over the years. To me some of the greatest things I see in people is the most subtle. It’s making a connection with an individual who may have been very withdrawn and unwilling to communicate. It can be a heart breaking to watch some people to still be sleeping rough due to mental health or other life disrupting problems after years of them coming into the coffee shop, but it warms the heart the day you see a little difference in a person in the way they talk to you, put trust in you, or are able to make physical contact by sometimes just touching your arm or a hug. This can sometimes take months or years, but whenever it happens, it is a great step in their journey. Lisa Mannion (Assistant Coffee Shop Manager) Client Christmas Party – 15 December APPEAL for HELP and GIFT ITEMS Can you believe that it’s that time of year again!? Every year we enjoy celebrating Christmas with people in our client group. We’d love you to be part of the celebration this year, and you can do this in several ways: providing gift parcels or items for the parcels, and volunteering at the party. Below is a list of the items we plan to include in the gift parcels. For both men and women: pants; socks; toothpaste; toothbrush; chocolates; hat, gloves, scarf (either or all), deodorant; razor; soap and hand cream. Plus: shaving foam for men and sanitary towels for women. Items should be size 8 to 12 for women, medium for men. It would help us if you could provide any gifts during the first week in December. For further information on the Christmas party, please email admin@crisis-centre.org.uk or ring Siân on 0117 942 3088. Thank you. Supporting the Crisis Centre Want to help us? You can make a difference too. PRAY! – Subscribe to our prayer emails to keep you up-to-date on current prayer needs. Follow the instructions on the ‘Email List’ page or the web site or email us. You could pray for the staff and volunteers, or you may be challenged by something you have read in the newsletter and want to pray for that person or situation. DONATE REGULARLY – For a standing order form please visit our web site or contact us. Regular giving gives us more freedom to plan for the future. Through Gift Aid your gifts mean even more! VOLUNTEER – Come and be a part of what is happening here. We need volunteers to help serve in the Wild Goose, to help Andy on the LITE course, to fund raise for us and to support our clients and their families. Speak to us and see where you could get involved. FUND-RAISE – Please encourage your church, school or youth group to make us one of their preferred charities and then fund-raise for us. INVITE US TO SPEAK – We would be delighted to visit your church, home group, youth group, women’s group, or any other kind of group, and speak about the work of CCM. DONATE FOOD – Please donate tins and dried food. For details please call us, or see the list on the ‘Current Needs’ page of the web site. SURF THE INTERNET – Go to our web site and visit the ‘Support via Web Search’ page. Bookmark one of the search engines on that page and use it as your default Internet search. We get a small donation for every search performed via either of these sites. REMEMBER US IN YOUR WILL – Please contact us for details. BUY BOOKS ONLINE – Again, you can do this by visiting our web site. Amazon give us a percentage of the sales via our web site, and it costs you nothing.