Meeting the challenge of transforming commercial buildings into havens of respect, warmth and energy can never be underestimated, this year Crisis is engaging a team of young homeless people to create somewhere they would like to spend Christmas.

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Friday Jan 04, 2008

A message home

Hello and a Happy New Year and I hope everyone’s Christmas was cool. I wanted to get involved in decorating the site, as this gave me experience for getting a job in the future. Doing the carpet and painting was perfect. After being involved in setting up the centres, I spent a couple of days there. It was lovely and I met very kind people who helped me to sort out my problems. They let me phone my family back in Ethiopia, it made me very happy being able to talk to my mum, dad and little sister. I also got involved in the activities at the centre and enjoyed the painting. I would like to be involved next year because the project and people are very nice.

Tesfaye.

Posted by Team ( 11:45 AM )
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Discovering charity work

I’ve never been involved in charity work or anything similar as fate would have it I became homeless. At the time it was just heart wrenching but as they say ‘sometimes blessings come disguised’. From being homeless I became aware of Crisis and the work they do for people afflicted and affected by destitution. After a few conversations with a friend of mine (Brian, also on this project) I realised that life’s many wrongs and injustices were not exclusive to me, so as per his advice I decided to take a proactive approach.

I found helping with the centres very fulfilling, it gave me a real sense of achievement from contributing to make someone’s Christmas a bit more enjoyable. I personally feel it is a lot more rewarding to help the less fortunate as it means a lot more to them.

The services provided were ideal for people in this situation because, speaking as a homeless person they facilitated the transition to a better life. Homeless people do not want handouts and freebies just a way to work their way out of dependency. So the provision of services such as housing advice, job hunting facilities and further education were definitely ideal in my opinion.    

What I wasn’t too sure about was the wet centres, I feel that these give off the wrong impression as they appear to accept drinking as being OK. I also think that allowing drinking at some of the centres enabled people to be unruly and disruptive instead of getting out of the rut they are in.

I would like to be involved in the project next year as I think I will be in a position to affect some change, the way I see it is I cannot help the homeless if I am one of them so I have to be housed and  settled and then give back, to me, that’s the win.

I did not stay at the centres but I went to two of them to see them functioning and to see and greet some mates. I thought they were run exceptionally well, when you think about the numbers involved, I think everyone involved in the organisation and execution of the event did smashingly well.

By Jamaal

Posted by Team ( 11:44 AM )
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Happy New Year

Hello and welcome to a brand new year. I hope everyone’s Christmas went well.

Its been a couple of weeks since I wrote last for which I do apologies but I have been awfully busy with the Crisis Open Christmas project. So I thought I should let you know how it went over the festive period at the centres. As you already know I was involved in the set-up of these centres. It was a hectice schedule but we got there in the end. Although plans kept getting changed which was annoying and staying calm was key. But by all pulling together the impossible was achieved.

Once the set up was done, it was time to start welcoming the guests. I had the fantastic but hard job of working in the kitchens. Seeing the guests enjoying the food and the space was a joy to watch and also made me feel good knowing that I played such a huge part in a lot of people having a good Christmas, which gave me a buzz and a sense of achievement. It was a great experience and I can’t wait to do it all again next year.

Brian

Posted by Team ( 11:41 AM )
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