Download - Christmas Oasis
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ww
w.northamptonhopecentre.org.uk
Be part of our team
...If it w
asn’t for the willing team
of volunteers, we w
ould cease to function.
If you are interested in getting involved,
call Sarah on
01604 602456
Our p
atrons: Th
e Rt H
on E
arl Sp
encer, DL
, Sally K
eeble. Th
e Rig
ht R
everend P
eter Do
yle Bish
op
of N
orth
amp
ton
Northam
pton Hope C
enrePO
Box 472,N
orthampton N
N1 3ZY
contact us on 01604 602456em
ail: office@
north
amp
tonh
op
ecentre.org
.uk
If your company, sports club or organisation w
ould like to know m
oreabout sponsorship opportunities on our w
ebsite or publicity materials
please get in touch.
call Debbie on
01604 602456
What lies behind us and w
hat liesbefore us are tiny m
atters compared
to what lies w
ithin us.R
alph Waldo Em
erson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) w
as an American essayist,
lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist m
ovement of the m
id-19th century.
Sponsorship opportunities
quarterlyquote...
Becom
e a fan of the Hope C
entre on Facebook!
ww
w.facebook.com
/northamptonhopecentre
contact usw
ww.northam
ptonhopecentre.org.uk
by Ralph Waldo Em
erson“
”
Welcom
e to our special Ch
ristmas
edition of Oasis. C
hristmas is a
happy celebration for most of us – a special tim
e with fam
ily and friends,C
hristmas lights tw
inkling, mince pies, the anticipation of advent and finally
The Day arrives. W
e celebrate the arrival in church and in our homes.
Sadly it’s not the same for everyone. For our clients it can be lonely, cold
and depressing. It brings back mem
ories of better times and it can be hard
to deal with those m
emories.
But this C
hristmas O
asis is not about how difficult C
hristmas w
ill befor som
e people this year. It’s about hope and happiness, success and
achievement and looking forw
ard to a better future. A
s usual we w
ill be here on Christm
as Day serving turkey and all the
trimm
ing to around 90people w
ho would otherw
ise be alone. The centrew
ill be full of laughter, friendship, crackers, gifts and too many brussel
sprouts.....just like many hom
es across Northam
pton! This w
ould not be possible without your generous support this
Christm
as and throughout the year. With your help w
e need to raise£24,000 to m
eet the costs of being here over Christm
as and throughoutthe cold w
inter months.
• £10 could pay for a homeless person to have C
hristmas dinner and not be alone this C
hristmas
• £25 could cover the cost of an ex homeless person learning how
to cook for themselves at one of our cookery w
orkshops• £50 w
ill help us to run a weekly chiropody clinic to take care of the feet of street drinker and rough sleepers w
ho are at high risk ofserious foot disease
If you are able to help us please donate whatever you can at
ww
w.justgiving.com
/christmashope2011 or text X
MA
S66 £am
ount to 70070D
onating through JustGiving is sim
ple, fast and totally secure. Once you donate, they send your m
oney directly to us and make sure
Gift Aid is reclaim
ed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the m
ost efficient way to donate, saving tim
e and cutting costs for us.D
onating via text is free and the amount you donate w
ill show on your next m
obile phone bill.
We are pleased to announce that w
e have been selected by No
rtham
pto
n Bo
roug
h C
ouncilto provide this year’s S
WE
P (S
evere Weath
erE
mergency P
rotocol)for the tow
n. In partnership with N
AA
SH
and NB
Cw
e will be opening our doors to ensure that there is a w
arm and safe place
for homeless people to sleep w
hen temperatures drop below
0°c on 3 consecutive nights. A team
of qualified staff and volunteers will run the facility, w
hich will be based here at the H
ope Centre. The
NB
CO
utreach Worker w
ill refer clientsand by w
orking together with current users of the H
ope Centre plus posters around the tow
n we w
ill ensure that all rough sleepers are made aw
are of thefacility and no-one needs to spend the night outside.
If you are interested in volunteering at the SWEP then please em
ail richard@northam
ptonhopecentre.org.ukor theresa@
naash.co.ukfor full details.
Help
others this christmas
It’s about hope and happiness and looking forw
ard to a better future
winter w
armer
sleepout 2012O
ur biggest and most popular fundraiser is the annual S
leepout that is always during
Poverty and
Hom
elessness Action W
eekin late January/early February. W
e wanted to m
akesure that you had plenty of notice to get ready for the 2012 Sleepout so please put it in your diarynow
....it will give you som
ething to look forward to after C
hristmas!
There has been a Sleep
out at the H
ope Centre for m
any years, it is a popular way for
homeless charities to raise aw
areness and funds. In 2009 Kate B
ellamy
revived the Sleepout
and you helped us to raise an amazing £5,000. In 2010 this grew
to over £8,000and in 2011
more than £12,000!
So we have big hopes for 2012....can you help us to m
ake it to £18,000? That would pay for a
full time m
ember of staff for a w
hole year to work w
ith our clients, helping them to break the cycle of
homelessness, addiction, unem
ployment and poverty. Im
agine the difference that would m
ake to som
any lives!A
ll you have to do is email d
ebbie@northam
ptonhopecentre.org.ukto confirm
that you would
like to take part. We w
ill send you a ‘Sleeper’s P
ack’which includes all the info you need on getting
sponsorship, what to w
ear etc.
Please, please join us and bring a friend too.
50sleepers raised £12,300
so just think what 80
could raise! Can you help us get to £18,000?
If you can’t come along then please sponsor us at:w
ww
.justgiving.com/sleepout2012
Help spread the w
ord......email us for a poster that you can print and put up at your church, school,
work, corner shop, com
munity centre – you get the idea!
Friday 3rd February 2012.6pm
– 6am. - St G
iles Church Yard, St G
iles Terrace, Northam
pton
Xm
as New
Oasis 2010:Layout 1 02/12/2011 12:03 P
age 1
look back
donate
at the hope centre
on2011
How
and when did you first becom
e homeless?
I became officially hom
eless in Decem
ber 2009. I had been in a 6 yearrelationship that cam
e to a sudden and quite violent end. I ended up in thepolice cells for C
hristmas and had to w
ait for a friend to provide a remand
address. It was a really tough tim
e and Christm
as is my w
orst time of year
now. I w
as lucky to have a couple of good friends who let m
e stay on theirsofa for a w
hile, but it’s hard because you don’t want to intrude on their
family life so I just tried to stay out all day and only go back there to sleep. W
hat was your life like before?
I had a good life before all this, when I look back now
I realise howm
uch I took for granted. I always had everything I needed, a nice place to
stay, a car, a regular job – the same as w
e all want really. I w
orked fornearly 20 years in care hom
es caring for elderly people with dem
entia, Ireally loved m
y work and m
y life.W
hat was your low
est point?After a w
hile I couldn’t put my friends out anym
ore and I started living inm
y car. My low
est point was the night I realised that I w
as going to have tosleep in m
y car. Soon after that I lost my job as a carer because I couldn’t
even look after myself properly, trying to get a show
er was hard and it w
asobvious I w
as sleeping in my clothes. B
eing NFA
(no fixed abode) I gotturned dow
n for loads of jobs so in the end I gave up looking. That was
when I felt like I’d lost everything and that w
as when I started drinking m
oreand hanging around on the streets because I didn’t have anything else todo. N
ot being able to buy Christm
as or Birthday presents for m
y family
was a really low
point too.H
ow did com
ing to the Hope C
entre help?I heard about the H
ope Centre from
some friends I m
et on the streets. Ihad been trying to get help from
different places but I just felt like I was
being passed around and no-one was really helping. I started using the
Hope C
entre just to get a cup of tea and something to eat to start w
ith. But
then they started to try and persuade me to get involved in different things
like art and cookery. I wasn’t that interested to begin w
ith but I tried some
of the activities and it did take my m
ind off my problem
s. I’ve beenencouraged to go to som
e self help and confidence building courses with
others from the C
entre. This has helped me no end in m
y thinking, I thinkm
ore positive and I set goals now.
When did you start to turn things around?
In September 2010 I got a bed at the night shelter and a couple of
months later I w
as asked to be a Client R
epresentative at the H
op
eC
entre. I felt as if I was responsible for other people again and that helped
me to cut dow
n on the drinking a bit. In January 2011 the night shelterfound m
e a flat and so I felt things were starting to look up.
What has 2011 been like for you?
Well it w
as better than 2010 but it’s still been really hard. Moving into
my new
place was good but I felt lonely because I w
as so used to being
around people 24 hours aday. O
n the streets andin the night shelteryou’re
never on
your ow
n so
Istruggled goingback
to an
empty
flat at
first.
One
night I
was
sitting outsidew
ith a group ofpeople
and I
just realised
Icould
choose to
sit there and stay inthat life or I could fightto get a real life back. Idecided to fight and I sorted m
yflat out and started looking for w
orkagain. C
oming here through the year really helped because I w
as treatedlike a norm
al person with responsibilities so I felt m
ore able to deal with
things.W
hat was the high point of this year?
I really wanted to get out of the trap of m
y life and get back to my old
normal life. So w
hen I got a job in October, as a cleaner in a school, I just
felt ecstatic, like I was finally back on the ladder and getting som
ewhere. I
will never take things for granted again, I used to think people w
ho were not
working w
ere lazy and should just get a job but now I have a new
way of
thinking. One of the goals I set m
yself was to find w
ork and be able to buyC
hristmas presents for m
y kids and it feels brilliant to have finally got there.H
ow do you feel this C
hristmas com
pared to last Christm
as?I can’t really com
pare how I feel now
to how I felt then, it’s hard to put it
into words. A year ago I w
as about to get my ow
n place but I had no realhope and no direction, m
y life was like a m
aze with lots of dead ends. I’ve
got a purpose now, things to get up for in the m
orning. I’ve got myself
back, there’s housework to do and shopping, bills to pay, I’ve got m
y work
and I feel like I’m helping other people again.
What does the future hold for you?
I sometim
es wonder if G
od had a purpose of me being so low
so Icould help others in this position. I consider m
yself a fallen, wayw
ardC
hristian, I haven’t been to church for years but I have never lost my faith. I
sit at Streetchurch sometim
es and wonder if H
e meant this to happen.
So m
aybe I’m just w
here I’m m
eant to be.
ww
w.northamptonhopecentre.org.uk
Yo
u c
an
no
w d
on
ate
on
line o
r by te
xt at
ww
w.justgiving.com
/christmashope2011 or text XM
AS66 £amount to 70070
inside spread
As Julie’s’s story show
s, homelessness can happen to anyone. It does not discrim
inate. To ensure we are here this C
hristmas and throughout
the year to help people like Julie put their lives back together, please consider making a donation or setting up a regular donation...
IN
TE
RV
IE
W
WI
TH
J
UL
IE
R
OS
SE
R
January – In January volunteers braved the coldfor The Hope Centre’s annual sleepout.
February – We had a Hollyw
ood themed day w
ith a red carpet, feather boas and plenty of fun and gam
es.
March – W
e attended weekly outdoor activity
sessions at the Frontier Centre.
April – Leah our Occupational Therapy studentshared her skills w
ith us.
May – Cookery group visited the butcher to learn
how to m
ake sausages.
June – Bananas paraded in the carnival to collectm
oney for the Hope Centre.
July – Clients enjoyed a trip to the seaside.
August – Baking club decorated batches of cakesto sell at the um
brella fair.
September – Theatre thespians perform
ed their play.
October – Pumpkin carving, a quiz and plenty of
scary face painting for Halloween.
November – Online day, DW
P volunteers were on
hand to encourage people to improve their online
internet skills.
December – W
e have plenty of Christmas
festivities planned for this year. We intend on
making decorations, crafts and gifts, a w
ii day,Christm
as karaoke and more.
‘Christm
as is my
worst tim
e of year’
Xm
as New
Oasis 2010:Layout 1 02/12/2011 12:03 P
age 3