Outreach Update * (Warning this may be a long one) Apologies for the delay in posting our outreach update but it was a mixed bag of emotions last night and ended up to be a late one. Firstly thank you so much to everyone who is helping collect, drop and make sure we have donations of clothing and food each week. This week we would like to give a huge thanks to Fizzy Whizz and family for providing Sandwiches, Cakes and water supplies. Thank you so much for giving up some of your time to provide for others ♥ ... if anyone else would like to help with food please get in touch! Also a big thank you to our honorary helper Jordan... Jordan has almost now come full circle with us on the Making Winter Warmer journey... and its truely encouraging to see! We met him as a street friend and with this groups support and his willingness to want to change his situation, well, he has managed to do just that! We are thrilled to say he is now in talks with his family, building relationships, awaiting a new home and job hunting like crazy :) ... we were touched to see that tonight Jordan came along with a large batch of cookies for our street friends, made entirely by himself and belive me they were a huge hit by all!! Jordan has found his talent within the kitchen and after speaking to him hes definatly wanting to run with it... Who knows, one day we may just be visiting him for a suspended cookie venue ;) imagine that. Well done Jordan and thank you for your group support! Theres was a bigger sense of community tonight, lots of our street friends seeming to talk more, share games of table tennis together and it was, as always, great to see them walking away with items of clothing and essentials to make their night a little more comfortable and food in their belllys. As we were just about packed up ready to leave, a young guy came over to the table in need of a small waisted pair of jeans... immediatly we dipped into a bag and pulled the only pair we had... perfect fit! He was so thrilled! He now had a fresh pair of pants to wear and his delight was written all over his face! It was something small to us, but so huge to him. .. and thats thanks to you guys for your continued donations! As we packed up and began loading up the cars ... a very happy and colourful man appeared before us! Harry! What a lovely bloke he is, we enjoy seeing him each week and tonight It was great to see him so cheerful heading home from volunteering at the PRIDE event. He turns up each week telling us of all the volunteer work he does and is so proud of himself, putting something back into the community and showing support for others as we support him. He has accomodation but with little money and no guaranteed income he relies on us for spare clothing and food supplies to help him sustain a bearable sense of living and we are so proud of him for his volunteer work and willingness to go out a do something for others. Now all packed up - we had a final job to do. We were on the hunt for a guy that had been spotted beside the Theatre earlier in the week by our team member. Armed with a much needed sleeping bag and tent we went to find him. We searched the theatre and surrounding area ... and as we did we bumped into our other street friends from outreach.. they advised us on where this person could be sleeping...( proof that we have gained trust with our street friends and also that as a community they look out for each other..) we searched these areas too but sadly we couldnt find him. As we were searching we noticed a couple of unmarked police cars traveling round and moving our street friends on, this making our search even more difficult. We were defeated. Finally as we arrived back at the underground car park ready to take our remaining supplies back to our lock up we noticed a guy at the back beside the skips.. He was slumped over a wall and seemed to be asleep as he didnt move even when we made a noise.. we still had the sleeping bag and planned on leaving it beside him for when he woke up but as we got closer he did... he looked a little startled to see us bless him.. He was just a young lad, looking a litte dirty, tired and run down. We recognised his tee shirt from our donations and asked him why he didnt come along tonight... he explained he was staying in the car park to keep away from troublemakers and that he has become intimidated from attending outreach and other food kitchens. It was incredibly sad to hear! He looked like he really needed our help too. We asked if he would like the sleeping bag which he accepted with such politeness. .. he asked us for a bottle of water and I remembered I had one in my bag... along with some money for food tonight and a few cigarettes. He said that he was regularly in this spot and we mentioned we would be parking here next week and that he can come along to outreach with us to help him feel more comfortable... we will try and visit him through the week to keep a check on him. We hope to see him in the same place next week so we can help him further. As we wished him a safe night and sadly had to leave him I spotted him laying out his sleeping bag ready.. This is when the true reality hits, when its right there in your face. He was just a bairn... preparing his bed in a grubby underground car park that had a horrid stench due to all the waste bins down there... that was his temporary home... Its shocking and extremely sad :( I hope he stayed safe last night and hope to see him next week to give him some new clothing, toiletries amd anything else he may need. This is where we need your help... he is a SMALL lad and as this is the most popular size at outreach/rucksack packing.. we are pretty much out of supplies! If you have any friends relatives or cpllegues that are a SMALL fit.. please ask them for their support and to have a rummage for anything no longer needed by themselves... and donate. Take to any of our drop off zones but please let us know where you have taken. We are still accepting anything from our donations list but would like to state the urgency of SMALL items. Lets help this poor lad and the many more like him. Base ... hopefully we will be in our new base before the end of the month which is great news!!! This will allow is to crack on building up rucksacks like we used to and get them out there on the streets where the most vulnerable street friends are... If you would like to help with this then please donate as much as you can from our list and help spread the appeal further. Thank you all for your continued support with our group... without you there would be no us and we cant imagine the streets without MWWs support. So thank you so much! Huge thank you and appreciation to the whole of Team MWW and volunteers too.... lets keep on keeping on! Much love, always. #teamMWW *permission granted on all photos*
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 12:34:18 +0000
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