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Newsletter
Welcome to the latest edition of HARP’s newsletter. We’ll provide
you with up to date information about what’s new with the services
and give you a greater understanding of the work that we do. If you
would like more information about the services that HARP provide
then feel free to browse our website at:
www.harpsouthend.co.uk
HARP has been supporting Southend’s homeless in some form or another
since 1987 and we hope to continue. We cannot do this without the
support of the community so we would like to take this opportunity
to thank you for your kind donations. The period of October to
January is always our busiest, in terms of dealing with donations
and this year has been no different.
BIG NEWS Update
– We have been awarded planning permission from the council to build
a new Training and Accommodation Centre (which will incorporate our
Day Centre). We have so far
been pledged over £746,000 towards the project—all we need now is
another couple of million.
Early last year, HARP took over the management of Acorn Housing
Association, which includes 30 bedsits flats in York Road and 12
other “move on” flats in Southend and Westcliff. This has proved a
successful project, and we have made improvements to the move-on
options for clients ready to live independently after homelessness
with support.
Rough Sleepers
- HARP operates a rough sleeper patrol once a week, in order to seek
out those sleeping on the street and make them aware of the services
available at HARP. The aim is to assist them with accommodation and
to engage them with health advice, doctors, dentists and substance
assistance contact details.
If you need any more information please do not hesitate to call me
on 01702 390665.
June Dudley
Rough Sleepers Worker
Fundraising News
- The support HARP has received throughout 2009 has again been
fantastic and as you are aware we need all the help we can get.
Harvest festival brought us many donations of food that have lasted
until the beginning of the year. They always come in thick and fast
and it’s always a wonderful sight. Many thanks to all those who
donated to us as part of this celebration.
To balance the good with the inevitable, I would also like to give
you a realistic idea of just how much we need your donations
throughout the year. Harvest festival brings so much food to us to
help the homeless, but it comes but once a year. We often find a
lull between February and September. This often leads to a
restricted service of food parcels and creates difficulties in
catering for our daily lunch service.
Scotland
- We are currently planning our second
trip to Scotland to volunteer for Tree’s For Life. This trip takes
up to 10 clients to Scotland to plant trees for one week, which is a
great opportunity and promotes teamwork and structure. This also is
looked on as a holiday for many of our service users that just don’t
get the opportunity to get away from the day to day living. For more
information please go to
www.treesforlife.org.uk
Genesta Road Project
- We launched our second medium stay substance misuse hostel
in late 2009. It will house 9 re-habilitating service users and work
towards better quality of life after homelessness. We received kind
support from RBS who donated not only a generous £1000 that they had
raised amongst call centre staff, but also they donated 5 staff
members for one day to make good the garden at Genesta Road. They
brought tools, plants and elbow grease and gave it a complete
makeover.
Training and Support
- Thanks to our training and support
team and connections with outside agencies, we are currently able to
offer Housing advice from the housing options department at Southend
Borough Council and Substance Misuse advice and support from the
Crime Reduction Initiative
regularly, on site, as a drop-in service. Our training and support
team have recently expanded and are continually coming up with fresh
ideas and new groups to assist Southend’s Homeless into more
independent living and reduce the chance of homelessness
reoccurring.
HARP Charity Shop
- We opened our charity shop during
2009, and to date it has been a great success. Previously we have
had difficulty with lack of space for furniture donations made to
us, even though we could utilise them greatly, we just had nowhere
to store them. Our new shop has opened up the opportunity for us to
accept items that would be of massive use to our clients that move
on, and is also a great way to raise funds for our organisation.
You can find our shop at the top of Valkyrie Road on the London
Road, Westcliff.
Chef Volunteers
- During November a number chefs from
local restaurants volunteered in our kitchen to show how cooking on
a budget could be practical and tasty. Over the course of 5
weeks, a different chef graced our kitchen each Tuesday to serve our
daily meal.
Street Collection
- On 22nd December 09 our
annual Street collection saw staff, clients and volunteers dancing
in Southend High Street raising money for HARP. Everybody that
collected dressed up in various fancy dress costumes and the DJ kept
everybody entertained throughout the day. Collectively we raised
over £1800!
Car Park Collection
- Also in December, for one day only,
the Civic centre kindly allowed us to receive donations from their
car park users. They abolished charges for the day and suggested a
donation to HARP for their car park’s utilization. We raised over
£300, good going in such cold conditions!
Fundraising Events
– for news on forthcoming events,
look on the fundraising section of our website,
www.harpsouthend.co.uk
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