The Canterbury Community Shelter will run from 1st December 2017- 28th February 2018.
This is our eighth year of operation, and we are once again using 7 church venues around Canterbury (one for each night of the week), which have kindly allowed us to stay overnight, to provide a bed for rough sleepers to shelter from the cold weather and also work with staff/volunteers to find more permanent housing.
We are now recruiting for 2017/18 Shelter Project Workers
See here for information
Volunteer with this year’s shelter
To help the shelter run smoothly, we require a strong team of volunteers to carry out a variety of evening or overnight roles:
- Kitchen volunteers to cook supper for the shelter guests at Canterbury Open Centre. (5-7:30pm).
- Evening volunteers to chat to the guests, play board games, etc at Canterbury Open Centre (5-7:30pm) and at the church venues (7-10pm)
- Overnight volunteers to support the paid staff at the church venues (can bring bedding and sleep if desired) (10pm-7:30am).
- Bedding volunteers with their own transport to take bedding to and from the church venues (mornings at 7:45am and/or evenings at 7pm).
If you would like to help out, please complete a volunteer form found here and return it to ccs@catchinglives.org
Alternatively you can pop in to Canterbury Open Centre to complete one (Station Road East).
Please note– If you are currently a volunteer with us, or volunteered with the night shelter last year, it is likely we still have your volunteer form however please let us know you are interested in volunteering for CCS this year so we can make a note and check your details are up to date (contact details, health information, etc.).
Induction evenings
Secondly, we are holding volunteer induction sessions, for new volunteers on the below dates (all cover same information so you only need to attend one).
(If you have volunteered for CCS before, they are not compulsory, but are still useful to attend if you are free as it provides an update and reminder of how everything works).
Saturday 11th November 2:30-4:30pm
Tuesday 14th November 6:00-8:00pm
Monday 20th November 6:00-8:00pm
All sessions are at our daycentre, Canterbury Open Centre (Station Road East, Canterbury, CT1 2RB (opposite snooker club)). Unfortunately we do not have any onsite parking.
-Please bring a form of ID (such as a driver’s license or passport).
Please note– If you haven’t volunteered before and cannot make any of these sessions we can arrange a time for you to pop to our centre to chat to a member of staff about the volunteering role one-to-one as all new volunteers require an induction (so you can still volunteer even if you are unable to attend the induction evenings).
Please feel free to send this information to anyone who may be interested.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.
Canterbury Community Shelter 2016/17
The Canterbury Community Shelter ran last winter from the night of Thursday 1st December 2016 until Tuesday 28th February 2017.
You can read our full CCS report by clicking here
Catching Lives’ Campaign team has also compiled a complimentary report on many of the social policy issues highlighted during this year’s shelter, such as the implications of prison release and hospital discharge to street homelessness, which can be read here
Please note, there are many other ways for people to support us with the shelter, such as through fundraising (we can provide you with help to organise events, items to do it and will do our best to pop along to any events that are organised!).
The number of clients accessing our day centre rises every year and on the 1st February 2016 we experienced our busiest day on record when we saw 62 clients walk through our door. The latest official figures published show that the number of people rough sleeping in England has doubled since 2010 and the figure reported for autumn 2016 in Canterbury was 50 rough sleepers.
There remain issues with the number of people being released from local prisons and hospitals without any where to stay and with the increased demand for private rented accommodation we are seeing a number of clients who have not been treated well by their landlords.
Canterbury Community Shelter can continue to make a difference with local people (such as our volunteers, donors or supporters) making real and measurable inroads on a local level, to a national problem. We couldn’t do it without your support.
If you would like any further information about the Canterbury Community Shelter you can email ccs@catchinglives.org for details.