Capacity and location:
The Colchester Night Shelter first opened in
October 1984. It was the result of collaboration between the Colchester
churches and the Probation Service as these organisations
were most
keenly aware of the need for a
direct access facility.
The Shelter was first situated in a three bed
council house which had been made
available by Colchester Borough
Council
for a peppercorn rent. We had six beds and because of the
arrangement of the
bedrooms and because men predominated
the street
homeless population they were reserved for men only. .
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For the first four years the Shelter was run on a
purely voluntary basis and as a consequence had several shorter periods
of closure due to a lack of people who were able to run it on an unpaid
basis.
Then in 1988 a funding opportunity arose with Joint
Finance which enabled us to appoint a full time Co-ordinator. This role
encompassed running the Shelter and ensuring that a properly trained
volunteer rota and support system was established. From this point on
we could provide a service not just simply make a provision as and when
good natured individuals were available to do the work.
It soon became clear, however, that the need for
the Shelter far outstripped the capacity and so we began to look for
bigger premises. In 1990 Colchester Borough Council was in the process
of relocating the Women’s Refuge and so their previous residence became
vacant. Next door, and attached to that building, a business with
living above the shop also came up for sale and the CBC offered to buy
it for the Night Shelter.
In 1991 following CBC’s refurbishment of the
premises we moved into a facility which could take both men and women,
offered 21 beds in single and twin bedded rooms. It is this building in
Alexandra Road the Night Shelter still occupies today.
The premises are now owned by the Night Shelter
courtesy of a grant from the National Lottery Fund in 1995.
Service development:
At the little Shelter we offered a cooked
breakfast
but no other meals except for
high days and holidays such as Christmas
and Easter. The desire for an evening meal
came top of the residents’
wish list. We
started by giving out just sandwiches but
now provide a
cooked meal each evening including a Sunday roast.
It also emerged that Sunday was especially
difficult for residents to get through because
there was nowhere to go
to get warm and
rest up. Following a successful community
wide
“Sleep-out” in Castle Park organised by Colchester Housing Forum, the
Shelter was granted £3,000 to pay someone to keep the Shelter open from
12.30pm until 7.15pm when normal opening hours begin.
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As the housing crisis deepened during the 1990’s it
became hard for people to get access to more permanent facilities and
we established a resettlement programme to help our residents to find
suitable accommodation. Staff see the residents weekly and discuss
their housing plans, any special needs and their general welfare.
This programme was expanded to include dedicated
resettlement work with The April Centre as partner accommodation
provider and advocate for residents when they have appointments or need
to challenge decisions. The resettlement worker also does follow-up on
information and compile all the relevant notes for potential housing
providers.
The Night Shelter continues to work closely with
the April Centre and many go into their private rented housing
facilities even though the resettlement worker is now employed by the
Shelter.
The new enlarged resettlement role has enabled the
Night Shelter to help very difficult–to-house clients with complex
problems and often challenging housing histories. We can confidently
keep these residents for longer to ensure that they receive the support
they need in their future homes. This work is sustained by funding from
Supporting People.
From the middle of the 1990’s we also began to
support people with drug and alcohol problems on a systematic basis
which actively supports people in their participation on substance
misuse programmes as well as trying to motivate those who are finding
the thought of reducing or stopping extremely difficult. This project
is supported by funding from the Essex County Council Drug and Alcohol
Action Team (DAAT).
At the beginning of the millennium a number of
projects working with homeless people joined together with Essex
Libraries and applied for money from the Learning and Skills Council to
help the homeless become more familiar with IT and introduce them to IT
learning facilities. We were successful in this.
At the Night Shelter residents can use the computer
from 9pm till 10.30pm as well as Sunday afternoon. When the Shelter is
not open the residents can access IT facilities through other members
of the consortium such as the Library, Matrix, The April Centre, and a
number of others.
Also during 2000 the Night Shelter expanded its
healthy living programme to include fruit and no smoking on Wednesdays
and we gave out vouchers for the local swimming pool. Whilst we still
keep up the fruit deliveries we have not been able to fund the swimming
for a few years. Smoking has of course been disallowed nationally but
the Night Shelter became a no smoking house in April 2007 – three
months before it became a legal requirement. A small shelter has been
built in the yard by our Assistant Co-ordinator.
Most of these developments have been spearheaded by
residents, who have regular access to the staff meetings and also to
the Committee Meetings.
We held a major consultation in 2006 which
comprised current residents, ex-residents and banned residents. We were
looking at the vexed questions of the rules and services but there was
surprisingly solid support for the system we use here although a number
of minor alterations were implemented following the consultation. We
are planning a further event in the near future.
Staff development:
From our very humble and shaky start when we relied exclusively on
unpaid volunteers, the expansion to 21 beds demanded that we began to
pay our overnight workers – at first a sessional payment, followed up
by a regular salary and annual contracts.
Obviously we have kept up with the sickness and
holiday regulations as they have been rolled out.
An Assistant Co-ordinator dealing with the staff
rota and provisions was first appointed in the late eighties and this
role includes deputising for the Co-ordinator when that person is sick
or on leave.
The training of staff is focussed on operational
issues as are the monthly staff meetings but increasingly we are
offering other skills as well. Now the core programme includes stress
awareness and management, assertiveness, conflict management and
resolution as well as first aid and fire training. An important part of
the training in recent years has been protecting vulnerable adults from
abuse.
In addition to this individuals can go on specific
training courses which they will then share with the rest of the staff
group at staff meeting.
Volunteers receive the basic operational training
(which includes food safety and clinical waste management) as well as
the conflict management and the vulnerable adults’ protection courses.
“Helpful visitors” who come in just to help out
with the cooking need little because they are not involved with the
residents but they must sign for the basis food hygiene training.
Funding:
This has always been a challenge with statutory
funding and trust funding often being time limited or for specific or
new projects.
However, most of our core funding whilst often
lagging behind cost increases, is secured by DAAT, Supporting People
and rent income from Housing Benefit as well as the charge we levy of
residents for their food and service (covering about half of what it
costs to provide these services.)
As for capital projects we have had Lottery funding
to buy the building as mentioned before and we have had generous
private trust fund monies for specific things (such as washing
machines, PVC windows computers, etc.).
We have recently embarked on a major refurbishment
project involving the entire property and have had substantial funding
from the Lauren Evans family, The Rotary Club, The Lions Club, Fowler,
Smith and Jones as well as the Homeless Trust. Local churches and
schools such as United Reformed Church, St Leonard’s and St.
Philomena’s School have made major contributions to this project as
well.
We have so far managed to refurbish our main
kitchen, two bedrooms and, thanks to Colchester Borough Homes’
contractors, we were able to refurbish the residents’ kitchen as well.
This spring we are going to do up two more twin
bedded rooms as well as the laundry room. We hope we can persuade other
organisations and individuals to take part and perhaps opt for an
adoption of this project for a certain length of time.
We feel that the local community is very supportive
and we are always happy to welcome any interested parties actual or
potential supporters to come and visit to see for themselves what has
been achieved.
Management:
In the early days the management structure was
fairly informal though never slack. But the moment we were in receipt
of serious public monies increasingly formal structures had to be set
up.
Thus in 1990 we became a limited company as well as
a charity and we are fortunate to have both width and depth to our
committee members’ skills and expertise not to mention unfailing
commitment.
The Committee meet 4-5 times a year to discuss major issues, the report
from the Co-ordinator and oversee financial matters.
The development of human resource legislation and
health and safety regulations have required us to buy in expert help in
the form of the Peninsula agency which now looks after these two very
complex and difficult areas of management work.
Once we started using regular contracted staff a
more formal procedure was necessary to ensure good operational
governance and consistent working between teams. We now run a 5 weekly
staff meeting which discussed all areas of operational policy as well
as all individual residents. Whilst most issues can and do get decided
in this forum, some decisions, be it that they are controversial or
financially demanding, will be further discussed and decided upon at
the Committee Meeting.
Each staff member also sees the Co-ordinator for a
one-to-one consultation between each meeting which gives everyone an
opportunity to reflect on their own performance as well as that of
management.
Residents are invited to take part in these
meetings or make their views known in writing. Often new developments
or existing failings are channelled through to become better practice
via the residents’ intervention.
In it’s nearly 25 years (anniversary in October
this year) of existence the Colchester Night Shelter has proved to be
remarkably resilient in the face of countless challenges both from the
client group and from the gap between increasing service demand and
increasing cost on the one hand and diminishing returns or trailing
funding increments on the other.
With its past track record of delivering the best
possible service no matter what the difficulties, we are confident that
the Night Shelter will face the future issues with dedication and
commitment from staff, management and residents.
Pernille
Petersen, Co-ordinator, 6th February 2009
Recent History
Since 2009 we have been able to complete the
bedroom refurbishment courtesy of the Evans family. In addition we have
made progress with the lounges and have had new laminate flooring laid
down and we have had the chairs reupholstered. We are currently taking
quotes for the painting and decorating.
As for training and residents’ development,
projects have progressed and we are doing in-house training and we have
some laptops for residents to use during their training here.
In 2010 we successfully applied for funding from
Lloyds TSB for a Personal Development Worker to help signpost residents
to external services as well as equip them to meet the needs of living
more independently. In 2012 this grant was augmented and the PDW is now
scheduled for 20 hours and is able to provide in-house cooking on a
budget training and help with access to IT based on “ Universal Class”
in internet provided wide ranging learning resource.
We are currently reviewing our organisational
structure and our services to residents.
We are actively recruiting new trustees (for
current incumbents see the trustees tab) following the departure of
Gordon Evans our treasurer of long standing and Marian Clegg,
administrator and company secretary. They have both contributed hugely
to the organisation.
The time ahead will be challenging, no doubt
because of the Welfare Reform Bill and its adverse effects on homeless
people. But with the changes also lie the opportunities for improvement
and renewal.
With the departure also of Pernille Petersen, who
has been with the organisation for 23 years, management structure and
personnel is also up for renewal.
Marina
Woodrow, 30th November 2013
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