Author: Debbie Watkins

Worthing Foyer became a vibrant hub earlier this week, thanks to a food demonstration from UK Harvest. 

Jenny Burling, Projects Manager for West Sussex Transitional Housing, tells us more:

UK Harvest, an environmental charity ‘on a mission to eliminate hunger and food waste through education and the redistribution of quality surplus food’, came to Worthing Foyer to demonstrate to residents how they can reduce food waste and make delicious meals on a budget. This was made possible thanks to the support from West Sussex Recycles who funded the session and also donated an air fryer for the raffle.

Residents came down early as they were really inquisitive and excited about what was happening. They helped the team from UK Harvest bring things into the project and set up the equipment, tables and food.

Then the demonstration started. There was information about shopping on a budget, nutrition, recycling, and of course cooking. They prepared and demonstrated air fryer chips, bruschetta pizza, tarka dhal and an array of healthy snacks.

Everyone was given a goodie bag to take away that had leaflets, stationery and information.

At the end of the session there was a free raffle where every resident who attended was entered, and the lucky winner won an air fryer!

Donna and her team from UK Harvest did a brilliant job engaging residents and staff members. It was great to have an atmosphere of excitement, engagement and fun in the Foyer with residents asking “what’s next?”, and “when can we do this again?”.

We want to say a huge thank you to UK Harvest for all their hard work and for providing a brilliant, engaging demonstration for our residents.

Christmas can be a difficult time especially for the young people we work with. Many will not have happy memories of Christmases past and others may miss the family connections they once had.  For anyone recently homeless it can be especially tough.  But, with the help and generosity of our partners, supporters and staff, we were able to create a special Christmas for all of our residents. From personalised gifts and festive bakes to Santa visits and home-cooked Christmas dinner, it was magical.

Lily, a project worker in Brighton, sums up how your support made a difference and the importance of giving at Christmas in particular:

It was clear that having their wishes met on a day, which has carried very difficult memories and experiences in the past, was very powerful. Also being able to extend the festivities beyond one day by having nice Christmas treats like the biscuits and chocolates was fantastic. We facilitated communal meals every day between Christmas and New Year and having resources such as the crackers, and extra decorations made this feel really special. It all goes a long way towards helping people rebuild positive associations of the festive period so that they may feel able to continue this in future years. Thanks again so much on behalf of the residents and staff for your generosity and thoughtfulness.

The Big Give Campaign

In addition to our Love in a Box activity, we ran a match funding appeal with the Big Give just before Christmas. This was a chance for us to share the long-term impact youth homelessness can have on a young person and why it is vital to support them at this critical stage of life.  We want to thank everyone who donated during the Big Give or shared our posts on social media and helped us to raise awareness of the issues facing too many young people in our community.

We are delighted to announce that we raised £20,260 (without Gift Aid) during the week of the Big Give! This money will go towards supporting the vulnerable young people that will walk through our doors this winter. Thanks to you we will provide them with a safe place to stay, alongside emotional support, help back into education or work and life skills they’ll need to get back on track and on the path to independence.

These are young people like Mapalo, who was the young resident who featured in our Big Give campaign. Mapalo lived with us last year and with our support has now just started university in London to become a midwife.  If you missed her story, we’d urge you to give it a watch below as she is inspirational.

What’s next?

If you didn’t have chance to get involved with our previous campaigns, or want to support us again, we’d love you to join our next exciting fundraising event in March. Join together with your local community for Sleep Easy 2023. Find out more here.

Residents at our Worthing Foyer gathered together to re-decorate an unused office space and turn it into a ‘Chill Room’. Amy Tsim, Inspire Coach, tells us more:

A few residents at Worthing Foyer, Jamie, Shy and Stephen, did a fantastic job in renovating an unused office space in the foyer. Input was gathered from all residents to decide a colour and theme – The residents decided they wanted a calm space, inspired by animals and nature.

Most items were sourced from charity shops and donations, which was important to the residents for environmental reasons (- as well as financial reasons). Residents learnt about project planning, painting and decorating, budgeting, putting together furniture, communication and social skills.

It was also made possible by a group of National Citizen Service (NCS) young people who raised money for Worthing Foyer.

I’m incredibly proud of what we have achieved and look forward to seeing residents produce artwork to put up to the walls and hope the room will be put to good use.

 

Q&A with Jamie, one of the residents involved:

What made you want to get involved in this project?

So that residents have a safe space to talk and feel like they don’t need to be quiet and feel like they are being over-heard and listened in to, which can happen sometimes if we’re using the training room because it can be very busy with lots of people walking past.

What did you learn?

I’m good at painting and decorating. Learnt some budgeting from having a set amount of money to spend. Other residents are intrigued to use the room, before they weren’t interested.

What did you enjoy/ find fun about the project?

Not feeling pressured to finish the room within a tight time. It was nice to be able to take our time doing it. Painting.

What are you looking forward to?

More residents using the room and having a safe space. Can’t wait to see what the residents want to put on the walls in terms of art/creative works.

 

A little more about Worthing Foyer:

YMCA DownsLink Group runs Worthing Foyer, an affordable, high-quality accommodation option for young people in housing need aged 16-25 years. Our aim is to provide a safe, supportive and enabling environment in which young people can be helped to reach their full potential. We provide training and support with an overall goal of helping those young people reach independence.

Support

All residents are required to sign up to an individual support plan in order to help them achieve their goals and progress to independent living. We provide a range of training opportunities for our residents. We have close links with local colleges and training providers and signpost young people to appropriate services where they can gain experience and further develop their skills.

Facilities

The foyer consists of 27 bedsits, complete with ensuite facilities, separated into 2 or 3 bedroom flats.

 

YMCA DownsLink Group is one of the largest charities providing services to children and young people across communities in Sussex, including supported accommodation for young unaccompanied asylum seekers. We are gravely concerned that separated children who are seeking asylum are going missing, suspected of being trafficked and criminally exploited, from hotels in Hove and along the Sussex and Kent coast where they have continued to be accommodated by the Home Office.

This is despite urgent requests from a range of agencies to Ministers and government departments to discontinue this practice and evidence that these children face significant harm.  We add our voice to the 100 charities, led by ECPAT UK, who have written to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak requesting the end to this practice immediately and an urgent independent inquiry given these significant matters of public concern following the reported failures to protect vulnerable children from harm.  (Download the open letter here)

Hove MP, Peter Kyle, was given special permission as a Shadow Cabinet member to speak in the Commons and gave an emotional speech on the issue (listen here). As an organisation that cares for vulnerable young people across Sussex and Surrey we were struck by his words:

“The uncomfortable truth for us is if one child who was related to one of us in this room went missing the world would stop, but in the community I represent a child has gone missing, then five went missing, then a dozen went missing, then 50 went missing and currently today 76 are missing and nothing is happening.”

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In 2017, Charlotte Steer, Step Down Project Worker, was visiting her Uncle in New York following months of backpacking when she came across a unique sock opportunity.

Charlotte told us:

“This is a beautiful small world story, and it’s incredible to be a part of a chance meeting that has led to something special years later. I am very grateful to Randy for the kindness he showed in New York and to his hardworking team who set us up with the socks.”

Charlotte was chatting to her uncle about only having old socks to wear on her trip, little did she know that the man at the next table was listening in to their conversation. This wasn’t just any man… this was Randy Goldberg, co-founder of Bombas, the quality sock company that successfully acquired a backer from Shark Tank (the American equivalent to Dragons Den).

Randy had been donating socks round the homeless community in New York. He offered Charlotte a couple of pairs, and the next day invited her to visit the Bombas office in the US where she learnt all about their quality socks. Not only do they look great, but they’re also seamless, have anti-bac properties and are good for your feet. Bombas are very community minded and donate a pair of socks for every pair they sell.

When Charlotte began working for YMCA DownsLink Group, she decided to contact Bombas and tell them about our Step Down Project at St Patricks. To Charlottes delight, a few weeks later 500 pairs of Bombas socks were delivered to St Pats.

These socks were kindly sent by Bombas to be given out across our projects. So far they’ve been included in Santa sacks/stockings, distributed to the Brighton street outreach service and First Base day centre, as well as across YMCA DLG.

We’re really grateful to Bombas for their donation, and to Charlotte for championing the brilliant Step Down project and sharing her story with us all!

There has been a lot of festivities across the organisation this week, from Christmas tree decorations to winter hamper making, and of course, some delicious roast dinners!

We’re over the moon to have received so many photos and positive messages about how everyone has been celebrating and the many ways in which our residents have been coming together to take part in festive activities.

We want to transport you across the organisation to see how each area has been celebrating so far…

Eastbourne

Eamonn Hannon, Senior Project Worker, tells us more: “We ran an Xmas meal for the service on Tuesday 20^th December. Mel managed to snag a sensible donation of food from Tesco having created and forged a valuable community partnership. Mel and two of the residents were instrumental in preparing the veg and assisting Mel in making what was a simply PERFECT meal for the service.

Some service users were too shy/anxious to join in but they were not forgotten and food was delivered to them too. Not only did the service users enjoy a Christmas dinner of Turkey, Beef. Lamb and Gammon, but the veg options were exhausted too – from mashed swede and carrots, roast carrots and parsnips, cauliflower cheese, broccoli cheese, roast potatoes, to my special addition – Brussel sprouts cooked in lardons and leek – impossibly good. The service was spoilt further by a selection of desserts, from homemade trifle, chocolate yule log and other various cakes.

Mel has really gone above and beyond to make today special for the service users, and it worked!! Tiffany Card, Bank Worker, and Louise Owen-Thomas, Service Manager, also got involved and ensured the day was a roaring success. Merry Christmas from at Eastbourne YMCA!!!”

Horsham

Mel Haynes, Deputy Projects Manager, organised daily activities for the residents at Horsham Y Centre including wreath making, Christmas baking and making hampers for friends and family. They have also turned the Y Centre into a winter wonderland again this year, including around 50 Christmas trees! See below for a tour of Horsham’s Christmas wonderland.

Samantha Burton, West Sussex Chaplain, also told us: “The London Road Methodist Church in Horsham held a Community Christmas Tree festival over the weekend, and this is the tree (pictured below) that we included from the Y Centre & Chaplaincy. The words on the plaque are words used by staff and residents to describe the Y Centre”.

Brighton & Hove 24-hour supported accommodation

A menorah and Christmas tree at our 24-hour supported accommodation in Hove. While candles are not usually used in projects, this was lit safely under the guidance of a Jewish volunteer Chaplain !

Guildford

The decorations in Guildford were organised by Jessica Griffiss, Inspire Coach Guildford, with the help of some residents. A nice combination of World Cup and Christmas.

Grove House, Hailsham

The Mayor of Hailsham, Councillor Paul Holbrook, visited our young people and staff at Grove House, Hailsham, to personally deliver a Christmas tree. The tree was kindly donated by Hilliers Garden Centre – organised by Justine Harmer, Project Worker. The Mayor helped decorate the tree, alongside some residents.

We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has made this Christmas so special for our residents. And we hope you all have a lovely end to the year, whether you’re celebrating Christmas or just taking some time to relax.