Catching Lives has this month appointed its first Chief Executive. Tasmin Maitland joins the Canterbury charity after many years working in the homelessness sector, most recently in consultancy and as Assistant Director at Homeless Link. She joins Graeme Solly and Emma McCrudden on the leadership team at a time of growing demand for homelessness services....

As Christmas time draws nearer, we’re reflecting on 2022 and the hard work of our team. We have a lovely team of volunteers who work tirelessly to cook hot meals in our kitchen, keep the centre clean and tidy and help and support our homeless clients 365 days a year. After four years of volunteering...

Welcome to the August newsletter for Catching Lives. With the recent hot weather, we continued our severe weather provision (SWEP) where possible to ensure our clients can stay out of the sun later into the afternoon and thank you to anyone that donated the items we requested in our last newsletter. Our Canterbury Schools Photography...

With the hot weather set to continue into next week, we’re continuing to monitor our severe weather provision for clients. From the 11th to 20th July we extended the opening times at our daycentre in Canterbury so that our homeless clients could stay until 5pm (rather than the usual 2pm) to escape the extreme heat....

Since the 11th July we have extended the opening times at our daycentre in Canterbury so that our homeless clients can stay until 5pm (rather than the usual 2pm) to escape the extreme heat. Canterbury Council have provided funding as part of their Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP) to help us cover the additional staff costs...

For the last 7 years we have captured the experiences our homeless clients were having when visiting our local hospitals. A common issue was being discharged as street homeless with Discharge Notifications that stated ‘Discharged to own home’, but with the listed address as ‘NFA’,  ‘Street homeless’ or even simply ‘Care of Catching Lives, Homeless Day...

On 29th June Catching Lives held its first ‘Health Day’ for clients. Professionals from a wide range of services were invited to the day centre to speak to clients, informing them of what support they can potentially offer.   Attendees including members of the Hep C Trust, NHS TB team, a Sexual Health Nurse, a...

On 14th June 2022, the Government anounced that it will end Friday prison releases to prevent the race against the clock that is faced by many prisoners released on a Friday. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/end-to-friday-releases-to-cut-crime-and-make-streets-safer We are delighted to hear about this announcement as many of our clients have struggled with this issue for years. They are released...

Our bookshop in Canterbury occupies one of the most photographed buildings in Canterbury, unusual because of its crooked appearance, it is thought to have inspired Charles Dickens’ novel, David Copperfield. The large windows are almost unheard of in this age of building due to the window tax that came in during the late 1600’s, however...

Catching Lives has kindly been offered a piece of farmland for the next five years, which will be used to grow produce for our kitchen at the Catching Lives Open Centre, where our team of volunteers cook meals for the homeless and vulnerably housed of Canterbury and East Kent on a daily basis.  We will...