Community Shelter updates
Welcome to your January update from Catching Lives. This month, we’ve seen an increased demand for Canterbury Community Shelter, especially during freezing cold weather and SWEP activation. As the seven-night-a-week shelter reaches its halfway point, we have so far had 397 overnight stays from 29 individuals. The shelter runs until 16 March. See below for our volunteer stats.
We’re working with the council’s housing and rough sleeping teams, as well as housing providers such as Porchlight, to help people find more stable housing. At the halfway point, two people have moved on to stable accommodation, three people have moved on to other temporary accommodation, and further decisions are pending.
We’ve compiled a list of FAQs about the shelter including locations, timings, how people get referred and more, which you can read here. If you’d like to support our work, please donate to our Winter Appeal. We have so far raised 50% of our £50,000 target.
New windows
It’s been a bit breezy in the Day Centre this week, as we are having our windows replaced.
Catching Lives has received funding from the VCSE Energy Efficiency Scheme, which is helping voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations (VCSEs) across England to deliver more efficient services for people and communities by saving money on their energy bills. We’ve been using our £14,856 VCSE Energy Efficiency Scheme grant to instal LED lights and double glazing, improving comfort for everyone using our building as well as greater energy efficiency.
The administration of these funds is managed on behalf of The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) by community charity, Groundwork. The scheme is funded as part of a package of over £100m of support being delivered by the Government to help frontline delivery organisations with the increased cost of living.
Read more via Groundwork.
How to help Catching Lives
We are still seeking volunteers for the Canterbury Community Shelter, including Drivers and Evening Kitchen staff. Please get in touch if you can help.
Thank you to everyone who donated items over Christmas. At the moment, the items we most need are tinned chopped tomatoes, hot chocolate, Cappuccino/latte single serve sachets and sugar. Please bring any donations into the Day Centre in Station Road East any day between 9am and 4pm (until 1.30pm Wednesdays).
Meet the volunteers
A shout out and big thank you to Maddy for volunteering with us over the past year. Maddy joined us on Christmas Day 2023 and stayed with us right up until she had to board a plane back to the US to continue her studies. Maddy always stepped in to help out when she could and had such a positive, warm energy that everyone noted. The regular Friday team and staff will miss her dearly. Good luck Maddy!
Volunteering Stats for January
Community Shelter Stats
Thank you to all our incredible volunteers across the Day Centre and bookshop. The stats for Canterbury Community Shelter are at this halfway point, from 16 December to 31 January.
And finally…
A massive thank you to Lenleys for donating a week of mornings transporting bedding from the Canterbury Community Shelter back to the Day Centre.
Thank you to All Saints Church Whitstable, Denswood PCC, Old Wives Lees Community and The Plough in Swalecliffe for donating money. Thanks Mansfield & Sons for donating food on Christmas Eve. Well done to the Canterbury Chamber Choir for raising more than £600 for us at their carol concert and Miles Banbery and friends for raising more than £700 with carol singing.
Thank you Canterbury Academy for the Christmas shoeboxes, volunteer Jane for donating haircuts and Jodie Okeefe for raising more than £850 with her sponsored Boxing Day sleep out.
Thank you to everyone who has donated money, items or time. If you’d like to support our Winter Fundraising Appeal, please do so via JustGiving.
If you’d like more regular updates, please do keep an eye on our website, Facebook and Instagram for more updates until we write to you again in February.
Sign up to our newsletter
To receive this newsletter in your inbox, you can sign up here. We post updates throughout the week on Facebook and Instagram.
Comments