Winter plans at Catching Lives
- Catching Lives
- Oct 24
- 3 min read
This winter, Catching Lives will be focusing on its 7-day drop-in services to help people who are homeless
Catching Lives is a day centre charity, delivering services every day of the year for people who are homeless or insecurely housed. Each year we work with more than 500 individuals, seeing an average of 36 people at our daily drop-in. In recent years, we extended our services in winter, with the Canterbury Community Shelter providing a communal shelter overnight in different venues across the city for winter 2024-25. However, instead of extended provision, this year we will focus on maintaining our core day centre services and working in partnership to help people access housing and other support as quickly as possible.
The decision not to run a night shelter is due to a combination of factors. Funding is a big challenge at a time of rising costs and rising need. We didn’t raise enough money to cover our costs last year and used reserves to make up the difference, so this year we need to prioritise getting enough funding for our core services.
As well as the financial challenge, our evaluation of the shelter showed that its impact was mixed. For some guests, Canterbury Community Shelter delivered the right help at the right time, by minimising time spent sleeping rough and enabling positive move on, with 42% of guests moving on positively before the shelter closed. Feedback included “when I came here I was lost and broken but staff and the people have helped me to start my life again”, and “it provides safety. We’ve gotten a positive community out of it.”
However, other people did not see these benefits. Several women told us that they didn’t feel safe enough to sleep in a communal space alongside men, instead remaining on the streets. Issues such as addiction, trauma and mental ill-health prevented people from taking up their places. Despite being over-subscribed at some points, average occupancy across the three months was just 9.5 out of 15 available spaces.
We’re lucky to have the support of amazing volunteers, including in-house welcome teams at church and cathedral venues. A small number of volunteers went above and beyond to cover most of the kitchen shifts and bedding transport. Despite their efforts, with 37% volunteer shifts unfilled, it fell to staff members to go the extra mile to keep the service running e.g. coming in early to collect bedding on their way to work. The charity as a whole was stretched by the challenge of delivering additional evening and night services while demand for day services remained strong.
This winter, Catching Lives will continue to help people to find safe places to live, by providing 7-day services with access to support and finding routes into accommodation. We work closely with Canterbury City Council, Porchlight, Rising Sun, Forward Trust and other agencies to provide an effective response to homelessness that meets the needs of the people we support.
We can only make a difference to people who are homeless in Canterbury and East Kent through the continuing support of people across our community. Please help us to deliver essential services by making a donation, joining our volunteer team in the kitchen, or spreading the word about Catching Lives so that people facing homelessness know that we’re here for them every day this winter.
