Catching Lives Latest News: September 2025
- Catching Lives
- Sep 30
- 3 min read
Harvest Festival donations
This September, we’re so grateful for all the wonderful Harvest donations being brought in. As you probably know, this is a really important time for us where we stock up our pantry with essential food items to provide year-round support to people experiencing homelessness. We’re still collecting donations and the items we most need include: coffee, baked beans, tinned tomatoes, hot chocolate, chocolate spread, honey, marmite, biscuits, sugar, custard, squash and cereal. Thank you to everyone who has brought in Harvest Festival donations including Whitstable Parkrunners, Crab & Winkle WI and St Dunstan’s Church.
Please bring donations, ideally in a strong ‘bag for life’, to our Day Centre in Station Road East any day between 9am and 4pm (until 1.30pm on Wednesdays.) We welcome Harvest Festival collections from churches, schools and local groups. Click here to find out more information.
Kent Charity Awards
We were delighted to be a finalist at the Kent Charity Awards in the Community Charity of the Year category - all credit to the hard work and compassion of our team, represented on the night by Project Workers Iwona, Becky and Isobel.
Catching Lives Open Evening
As a valued member of the Catching Lives community, we would love to invite you to our open evening on Wednesday 15 October 2025. Our doors will be open from 4.30pm until 6pm, and you will have the chance to learn about the work we do to support people who are homeless, as well as speak with staff and see some of the work produced in our art sessions.
Refreshments will be provided, and there will be the opportunity to have a look around the centre and garden, and ask any questions you have. You can reserve a spot at the open evening here.
We’d love for you to join us! If you have any questions or would like to find out more about the event, please get in touch. Thank you for your support. We hope to see you soon.
Meet the volunteers
Our Meet the volunteers feature celebrates the amazing people at the heart of Catching Lives. Julie Steele has been volunteering with us for 10 years. Catching Lives Volunteer Coordinator Rosie Bartlett says: “Julie is another one of our Tuesday regulars. It's great to see how well Anne and Julie know and work with each other after so long volunteering together!” In case you missed it, Anne was featured last month and you can catch up with her ‘Meet The Volunteers’ here.
How did you hear about the volunteering opportunity?
My friend knew about the centre and so I went onto the Catching Lives website to read about it myself.
Why choose Catching Lives?
I have always been interested in volunteering with an organisation that helps with homelessness.
What are some joys you have experienced since starting with Catching Lives?
The centre is an upbeat and lively place to volunteer. I've made friends, had a lot of laughs and feel like I've contributed to something really important.
What would you say to someone thinking about volunteering with Catching Lives?
Come along and volunteer with us, I'm sure you'll enjoy it...
Outside of Catching Lives, how do you like to spend your time?
Meeting up with friends, reading.
What is your previous line of work/study?
Previously I worked in patient safety for the NHS.
What are your passions/interests?
Crazy cat lady!!
Volunteering Stats for September
A big thank you to all our volunteers!
Meet Visual Poetry's Michał Piotrowski
Michał Piotrowski has run Visual Poetry workshops with us over the past few years.
Clients love his experimental poetry workshops, mostly focusing on collage poetry – a form of art combining cutout words and pictures.
Miriam Ellis, Activity Coordinator at Catching Lives, said: "Michał brings a fresh and creative approach to engaging people with poetry. Each class is unique and leads to powerful, moving results.”
Read more from Michał here.
Thank you
Thank you so much to Cardo Group (pictured) for a huge donation of bedding and household items. Thank you to everyone who has volunteered their time, brought in donations, supported our Fresh Clothes, Fresh Start appeal (which closes today) and donated to our JustGiving page.
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 October.
