News Categories: Supported Housing

Taking home the waste

It’s that time of year again when friends and staff of North Wales Housing visit the Abersoch festival site of Wakestock to collect a haul of abandoned camping equipment that will be redistributed to rough sleepers during the winter months.

For the fourth year running, the team managed to gather 69 tents, 48 sleeping bags, 45 roll mats, 15 air beds, 22 camping chairs, 10 pairs of wellies plus cool bags, ground sheets, blankets, inflatable pillows, picnic mats, tent pegs and trainers!!

A mix of homeless service users, staff and friends of St Marys and North Wales Housing joined in to bring home the goods, which will provide a lifeline for many rough sleepers in North Wales later on in the year.

The annual collection continues to fill a significant gap in NWH’s Supported Housing budget, enabling the association to provide essential winter packs that are distributed at the gates of the Bangor-based hostel.

Kerry Jones of North Wales Housing said:

“The Wakestock event is a brilliant opportunity for us to collect unwanted, quality camping equipment that’s largely been used for that one event. We take our haul back to the hostel, clean it down and redistribute it in the Winter when rough sleepers, unable to find a bed for the night, are in need of extra support and shelter.”

A typical winter pack is made up of a tent, sleeping bag, blanket, cooling equipment and tinned food stuff. The packs are largely distributed at the gates of St Mary’s hostel in Bangor as the cold weather sets in.

She added:

“We’d like to once again thank the organisers of Wakestock for facilitating the day and allowing us on site. Their left over waste is once again going to a great place!”

“We are however still missing some basic essentials and are in real need of tracksuit tops and bottoms, trainers and boots, socks and underwear, mostly for men. If anyone has any unwanted items that they are able to donate, please call in to St Mary’s homeless hostel in Bangor where we’d be glad to accept any donations.”

Say it with socks

Homeless hostel St Mary’s in Bangor has launched its sock appeal!

The hostel has found that socks are one of the least donated items, yet are one of the most needed. Wear and tear of footwear is common for those sleeping rough and to help keep both homeless men and women warm and free from infection, a strong supply of socks is essential.

Barbara Fitzsimmons of North Wales Housing-managed hostel, St Marys said:

“Strangely we get very little socks when we receive donations and constantly have to buy new where possible. I think that this is just an item that is overlooked as people tend to focus on the bulkier items such as coats and jumpers.”

She added:

“Any unwanted presents are ideal or perhaps people may be able to spare a pair from a multipack purchase. So many people who donate actually buy from new and are so generous – we would ask these people who may be considering supporting our service users to think feet, and socks in particular!”

Donations can be made at the gates of the hostel on Love Lane in Bangor.

As part of St Marys drive to ensure service users have access to warm clothes and outdoors equipmemet, teams from North Wales Housing will be once again venturing to the Wakestock festival post event to collected any leftover usables.

Clothing, footwear and camping equipment that has been left will be reclaimed by the team, taken back to the hostels, cleaned and stored in preparation for the winter months when supplies are at their lowest.

Barbara said:

“The Waksetock collection is a brilliant way of having access to a huge amount of really useful items that help our rough sleepers to get through Winter. Our team of volunteers will spend the day wading through the rubbish to sift our some gems for us to be able to use and share with service users.”

Brush strokes

A group of tenants and supported housing service users from North Wales Housing are displaying their artistic flair at an exhibition at the Gwynedd Museum & Gallery, following an ambitious arts programme.

The group from Bangor completed a ten week course which introduced them to a range of artistic disciplines and techniques. This project was a partnership programme held between Gwynedd Council’s Museums & Arts Service and North Wales Housing.

The display at the gallery shows the groups progress through the course duration and developing ability to express themselves through various mediums.

Julie Eddowes Outreach and Resettlement Officer of North Wales Housing said:

“This has been a brilliant project that has not only allowed the tenants and service users to develop their skills and provide an outlet for their expression, but has encouraged the group to work as a team, share their experiences, opinions and feelings.”

“The resulting work from all of them is incredible and shows some serious talent!”

Led by community artist, Vivienne Rickman-Poole, the course was kick-started with a tour of the museum and gallery which helped to inspire the budding artists. The second week centred upon a still life exercise, in this instance, mackerel – the group began sketching the fish using line drawing, moving on to use of colours, progressing further to add collage. Other examples of techniques explored were printing and watercolour painting.

Julie added:

“Each student’s work has been expertly mounted and displayed for public viewing which has garnered a real sense of pride for our service users. Anyone interested should visit the exhibition gallery at no cost.”

North Wales Housing tenant Dafydd Lloyd who took part in the project said:

“The project has been one of the most satisfying, creative experiences I have ever had’.”

Four of the service users are continuing to meet together regularly as an art group with the Gwynedd Museum & Gallery allowing the budding artists to use their premises for a further 10 weeks on an in kind basis.

Seeing is believing for principality

Principality Building Society is helping service users at Bangor homeless hostel, Pendinas, dress to impress.

Wales’ largest building society has donated a number of uniforms, which can be used by residents when they attend job interviews.

 

The Society is also helping Pendinas with its ongoing gardening project, which all residents participate in, by donating equipment and plants.

Else Lyon, Scheme Manager at Pendinas said:

“The gardening project has become really important to everyone here at Pendinas. The service users have transformed the garden and have spent lots of time planting and tending to our own veg and fruit which we are able to use in our recipes here and promote both cooking and healthy eating.”

“The help from Principality has come at a great time as spring is in the air. This will help us to buy more planters, compost and seeds and get preparing more foods for next season.”

Principality and Pendinas are both involved in Business in the Community’s ‘Seeing is Believing’ initiative that offers a range of support types to local community groups and charities.

Pendinas, a north Wales Housing managed scheme has been working with a number of local businesses (alongside St Mary’s hostel in Bangor) that have all shown their commitment and support through a range of innovative and practical initiatives.

Kelly Williams, Principality Building Society’s Bangor branch manager, said:

“We are proud to be at the heart of our communities and we wanted to provide support to this vital service for the people in Bangor. We hope that the gardening equipment will help residents to grow their own cheap and nutritious food, whilst helping them to learn more about cooking and being more self-sufficient.”

“Job interviews can be really daunting, especially without the right clothing, so we were delighted to be able to help them by donating our uniforms and we wish them the best of luck with their interviews.”

Principality has supported a variety of similar causes in the past year, including Bangor under 10s rugby team and the netball team at a school in Mold.

Service users get IT savvy thanks to BT

Service users at homeless hostel, Pendinas, in Bangor are working on the development of critical IT skills thanks to a donation of two PCs by BT.

The North Wales Housing-managed hostel previously had no IT equipment, meaning all forms, job applications and correspondence had to be completed by hand or using external PCs. Through support by staff, service users are now able to develop basics IT skills, which will help them as they continue to make the journey back towards independent living.

Else Lyon, Hostel Manager at Pendinas said:

“IT skills are critical in today’s society and the wider jobs market. With funding already incredibly strained, there is no way that we could afford to purchase any equipment, so this donation has been fantastic.”

“Our association with BT came via the Business in the Community initiative. BT has offered some extremely considerate support that will have a lasting and positive effect on the often vulnerable people we work with, including this amazing donation, as well as the opportunity for our service users to carry out work placements.”

“We consider support such as this as invaluable and helps give our service users a much needed helping hand.”

Geraint Strello, BT regional manager, said:

“BT understands the importance of having IT skills and access to IT equipment and are pleased to support the work done by North Wales Housing. We hope these PCs will be of real value and help the service users at the hostel.”

Fareshare demand ramps up

North Wales Housing’s partnership with the Fareshare North Wales food project continues to grow from strength to strength as more service users and tenants are being encouraged to access the service.

To date, the Fareshare North Wales offering has been limited to those living in North Wales Housing’s hostels and move on tenants, however, this is set to change as the partnership between the two organisations gathers pace. Under exciting plans, a food storage area has already been established at the organisations head office in Llandudno Junction where food items collected from Fareshare North Wales can now be kept, offering tenants more flexibility in the foods they can choose.

In the New Year, North Wales Housing tenants will be able to review the range of foods available via the North Wales Housing website and place an order via phone or electronically. Arrangements can then be made for the food to be collected at a designated pick-up point.

Brett Sadler of North Wales Housing said:

“Together with our partners Fareshare North Wales, we’re looking to identify new ways of allowing our tenants to access the Fareshare offering. Many people are currently experiencing food poverty and initiatives such as this can help our tenants buy quality foods at incredibly reasonable prices whilst redistributing food that would otherwise have been sent to landfill.”

North Wales Housing have been working in partnership with Fareshare North Wales during the past 12 months. Fareshare North Wales work to save in-date food from landfill by working with local and national food suppliers and re-distribute the surplus food to the North Wales community. Their aim is to help people who are vulnerable to food hardship;

North Wales Housing provide foodboxes and individual items to tenants most in need of help at a greatly reduced price (e.g. £25 worth of food for a donation of £5) and to date has distributed 320 food boxes in the first six months of the project, equating to three tonnes of food saved from landfill.

Sharon Jones, Chief Executive of Crest Co-operative, who run FareShare North Wales, said:

“I am thrilled that the FareShare North Wales service has benefited so many tenants. By working with North Wales Housing we are able to support tenants, who are struggling with the rising cost of food bills.”

“We believe that good food should not be wasted and that it should be distributed to people who need it,” she added.

Waitrose show support for homeless in Bangor

Waitrose in Menai Bridge is providing regular food parcels to homeless service users at Bangor hostel, Pendinas.

The supermarket has been collecting food, where packaging is damaged or the food is near the end of its shelf life and fit for eating. These are then given to the hostel, helping boost the much needed provisions available to service users.

Waitrose Menai Bridge branch manager, Gareth Hind, visited the North Wales Housing managed-hostel through the Business in the Community ‘Seeing is Believing’ initiative. This encourages businesses to get involved with their local community on key social and environmental issues. The shop are now supporting the hostel through a number of initiatives, the first being regular food donations.

Members of the Pendinas team pick up the pre-packed parcels and share these amongst service users using ingredients to encourage healthy eating.

Else Lyon, Hostel Manager at Pendinas said:

“Waitrose has been brilliant in the commitment they have shown to us. They provide us with a great food parcel at least once a week that contains a real mixed bag of quality produce and goods.”

“Not only does the food help plug a gap in funds but the different types of food that we received encourage service users to think about how they can use it and ways in which it can be cooked or prepared.”

Gareth Hind, Waitrose Menai Bridge Branch Manager said:

“It is great to be able to provide food parcels to support the hostel in Pendinas and the fantastic work that they do in our community. I really enjoyed visiting the hostel and meeting everyone there and we are looking forward to continuing our work with them in the future, including initiatives like helping the service users prepare for interviews and apply for jobs.”