Catching Lives Latest News: December 2025

Christmas Day team: Iwona, Giulia, Emma, Isobel & Georgia

The season of goodwill

This is your December update from Catching Lives. It’s been a whirlwind month at the day centre, planning and hosting Christmas Day for people who are homeless. Our community has shown amazing goodwill and generosity, with donations including food, gifts and clothing that have made the festive period special for everyone. Thank you to all the individuals, churches, schools and community groups who help us to create a warm and welcoming service every day.

Our Winter Appeal has reached an incredible £14,040 from 179 donors. Can you help us reach £15k as we head into the New Year?

Thank you for your continued support, we wish you all the best for 2026.

Thank you!

Becky & Georgia with gift bags from St Stephen's Juniors

Thank you to everyone who has supported us in this season of goodwill, including:

The Canterbury Singers who helped us to raise £671 at their beautiful Carols by Candlelight performance at St Mildred’s Church. St Edmund’s students donated a huge £835, while the Christmas cracker festival at All Saints Woodchurch raised £540!

Primark Canterbury collected a huge donation including clothing, toiletries and homewares with the help of generous local shoppers. Mansfields held events including a bake sale and quiz, in order to make a big festive delivery of food and a donation of £1011. Thank you to all their staff who contributed!

St Stephen’s Juniors kindly packed and decorated 200 individual gift bags and wrote Christmas cards - what an amazing effort! Thanks to regular supporters at the Chaucer Hospital and at New Life Church who each delivered gorgeous gift boxes.

And congratulations to the successful bidders and lucky winners in our online Auction of Promises & Raffle, which raised £910.

Cooking up a storm with local chefs

Holly from Samphire, Michael & Freya from The Pig

Thanks to funding from Sainsbury’s, talented local chefs have brought their skills, enthusiasm and knowledge to sessions with people experiencing homelessness. Classes have been delivered by Holly Batterbee of Samphire in Whitstable, Will Burnett from Fern and Farrow in Bishopsbourne, Julian D Brown from Cliftonville Dining Room in Margate, and Michael and Freya of The Pig in Bridge. Read more here.

Finding calm and creativity with Terrapy

Terrarium building in action at Catching Lives

We've been spotlighting some of the brilliant facilitators who contribute to our Arts and Activities programme. Sebastian Tribe, founder of Terrapy, runs Terrarium workshops with Catching Lives, aiming “to spark curiosity about the natural world and provide a sense of agency through horticulture.” Read more here.

Thank you to all our Christmas volunteers!

Christmas Day & Christmas Eve volunteer teams

Thank you to everyone who volunteered over the festive period. This year we were joined by 14 new volunteers and welcomed back 5 volunteers from last Christmas.  Volunteers delivered Christmas lunch with all the trimmings, as well as breakfast - a total of 40 meals for 29 people on Christmas Day. The warm welcome and kind words of our volunteers are an important part of creating a comforting space at what can be a lonely time of year for our clients.

Keep in touch

For more regular updates, please do keep an eye on our website, Facebook and Instagram for more updates until we write to you again in December.