Catching Lives Latest News: June 2025
- Catching Lives
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
Happy Pride Month!
This is your June update from Catching Lives. We started this month by celebrating Volunteers’ Week and we’re ending the month celebrating being shortlisted as a finalist for Community Charity of The Year at the Kent Charity Awards. The winners will be announced in September.
June is Pride month. Catching Lives is an LGBTQIA+ and trans-inclusive service, where everyone is welcome, regardless of sexuality or gender, all year round.
Celebrating our volunteers
We had a wonderful event for our volunteers at social enterprise Chatterbox Cafe on Castle Street on Wednesday 4 June. We enjoyed delicious quiches, dips, cakes and drinks in the colourful garden during a sunny evening. There were thank you messages from our clients and a chance for trustees, kitchen volunteers and bookshop volunteers to meet. Thank you Chatterbox for looking after us and a massive thank you to all our volunteers. Also, many thanks to Canterbury BID for donating a £50 Canterbury Gift Card as a raffle prize. All volunteers were given a free ticket at the event and the lucky winner was one of our bookshop volunteers.
Improving our Day Centre space
Arts and Activities Coordinator Miriam and Manager Graeme have been working hard, painting walls and doors in the Day Centre and hanging client artwork. We aim to create a bright and welcoming environment for our clients.
The Day Centre building is steadily improving, with the flat roof and windows replaced thanks to grants, and lots of decluttering! One of our brilliant volunteers has offered to help in the garden, and we hope to grow more fruit and vegetables in the future to become more sustainable.
Occupational Therapy students Sanky and Clare, who are on placement with us, have created excellent new activity posters that are on display around the Day Centre.
Meet Nervous Drawing's Alex Boican
It's been a year since we launched our 'Meet The Volunteers' feature, below, celebrating the amazing people at the heart of Catching Lives. Now it's time to meet some of the brilliant facilitators who contribute to our Arts and Activities programmes. Artist Alex Boican has been running Nervous Drawing workshops once or twice a month at Catching Lives since July 2022.
A Catching Lives client said: "After three years, Nervous Drawing is still going strong. The main reason is it's so simple, as Alex says, "There are no mistakes".
"Everyone who takes part are made to feel equal, and many good works have been produced. Alex is a very passionate tutor, and it remains one of the best activities at Catching Lives. Long may it continue!"
You can read the feature here.
Donating items to Catching Lives
The Catching Lives bookshop at 28 Palace Street needs donations of books. Are you having a summer clear out and looking for a new home for your pre-loved books? The shop particularly needs good quality large format kids picture books at the moment, and ‘as new’ modern fiction is in demand for ‘Blind Date with a Book’.
We welcome donations all year round. The bookshop is open daily from 10.30am to 5pm so please bring your secondhand books to the shop, which is volunteer-run and raises vital funds to help people experiencing homelessness in Canterbury.
We're running low on some food items at the Day Centre and need donations of hot chocolate, biscuits, squash, sugar and coffee. Especially useful donations on these hot summer days include caps/hats, reusable water bottles and fresh fruit/vegetables - send those allotment gluts our way!
Please bring donations to the Day Centre on Station Road East any time between 9am and 4pm (to 1.30pm on Wednesdays). There’s a regularly updated list of items we most need here.
Upcoming fundraisers
This Sunday 29 June, Sporting Events’ Run The City one mile event is in support of charities including Catching Lives, with Canterbury Cathedral as a stunning backdrop. Find out more and book via sportingeventsuk.co.uk/enter-an-event.
Meet the volunteers
Our Meet the volunteers feature celebrates the amazing people at the heart of Catching Lives. Judy Wilson started volunteering with us during the night shelter in 2019 but has since offered support and help when we've been low on volunteer numbers during the day and is now a regular Monday volunteer.
How did you hear about the volunteering opportunity?
I started with the night shelter programme just before Covid, at the end of 2019. I heard about it through Karen, who used to work for Catching Lives - she was a customer in our farm shop.
Why choose Catching Lives?
I feel strongly about homelessness and wanted to do some voluntary work in semi-retirement. Catching Lives does important work in this area.
What are some joys you have experienced since starting with Catching Lives?
Gradually starting to chat to some of the clients, sharing a laugh with them and seeing how a warm, safe place with hot food and helpful staff is good for their wellbeing.
What would you say to someone thinking about volunteering with Catching Lives?
Do it! It’s fulfilling, puts life in perspective and you meet interesting and lovely staff, volunteers and clients. You also feel you are helping, in a small way, those in society who are vulnerable - for whatever reason.
Outside of Catching Lives, how do you like to spend your time?
With friends and family (three children and two grandchildren). Also enjoy walking the dogs, reading, gardening - and listening to loud rock music!
What is your previous line of work/study?
Have worked on our farm for the past 40 years - milking, calf rearing, tractor driving and admin. Also did learning support at South Kent College for a couple of years.
What are your passions and interests?
Love long distance walking - good for the soul! The longest was 166 miles from Portugal up into Spain. Also love travelling, especially road trips.
Volunteering Stats for June
A big thank you to all our volunteers!
Thank you
Thank you to Benenden Village Fete for raising £1,000 on the gate at their annual event and to the generous anonymous member of the community who matched that with another £1,000, so we’ll receive £2,200 including gift aid! This brilliant community continues to support Catching Lives in memory of the late Tracy Claridge who was a former volunteer and avid supporter of our charity.
Thank you to The Granville pub for raising £389 for Catching Lives with your quiz night and thank you chef Holly Batterbee for making focaccia with our clients.
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 Julu.
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