What does Christmas mean to people who are affected by homelessness? Do they notice the bright lights, do they watch people walk by – Christmas shopping in the cold evenings? Do they wonder what might happen if they had the chance to enjoy a traditional Christmas, as we do, with friends and family?

The answer to the above is yes, but it is also complicated – with many more emotions and feelings playing a part in how people affected by homelessness feel about Christmas.

Last year we asked service users what Christmas means to them. Their replies ranged from exciting to scared and lonely. This isn’t unusual – as every person at SSJ is an individual with their own feelings and thoughts. Whilst some may look forward to our traditional Christmas Meal – provided thanks to our appeal – others may have thoughts of regret relating back to missed opportunities or lost loved ones which mean they find Christmas challenging.

Senior Support Worker Lucy recently spoke to Barry, who has been in our services for a while now, and his thoughts on Christmas show that all kinds of memories can resurface at this time of the year.

Barry said; “Christmas it is horrid, if it was a colour it would be black. It’s a very emotional time. There is a photo of my mum and dad sitting on a step in black and white from 1967, near Christmas time in 2015, I went back to the step and slept on it due to a relationship breakdown, and my mum had passed away.

“People helped me over Christmas time when I was homeless, someone brought me out a Christmas dinner one year, people gave me lots of jumpers, jackets and money which I was very grateful for.”

Barry continued; “now I am temporary accommodated, Christmas is still a hard time due to bereavement and mental health however I am working on myself and have better people in my life who support me now I am kind of looking forward to Christmas. “

Barry speaks about how Christmas can feel like the colour black, but ends with the fact that there is now a support network in his life – and the Christmas Meals Appeal gives us the chance to show Barry that Christmas can be a positive time of the year – and who knows what that good feeling might do for Barry in 2022.

Even for us, those who are lucky to have a home and a family to go home to at Christmas – this time of the year can be complicated, stressful and challenging. Those feelings can be multiplied for people who have a history of homelessness – some who are facing complex health issues too – meaning Christmas can feel incredibly daunting and very lonely.

Our appeal will provide a gift or a Christmas meal to people affected by homelessness, but most of all it will be provide hope.

Please support our appeal by clicking here.

If you want to find out more about our appeal – email Dennis.Jones@SSJ.org.uk

Thank you for your support this Christmas. 

The year started with news that we had passed our goals for our 2020 Christmas Campaign, which meant that we were able to use that money to provide meals for people affected by homelessness, whilst the money raised in excess of the original target was used to help service users on the road to recovery. We are all aware that December was challenging for many of our supporters so the support you showed last Christmas meant a great deal to us.

We also published an interview with the Senior Management team, who spoke about the challenges faced during 2020, as well as the plans ahead for the charity and what this means for the next chapter in the history of SSJ as we move towards our 50th year in 2022. As well as this we shared stories about some of our partnerships, including one with Abri.

We also spoke to Liam, a service user, who told us that his cry for help was listened to – and that SSJ played a massive part in his recovery. Liam sent an emotional message of thanks to Hannah in his interview saying “Hannah I wouldn’t be where I am without your help over the last few months, you helped me achieve my goal of being clean and sober. I’m hugely grateful and will be for the rest of my life”

We also told the story of service users who had the opportunity to head to the Isle of Wight for a team-building bike ride to build confidence and help improve mindfulness.

And we recently shared the exciting news about new contactless donation hubs which are situated across Southampton thanks to the Street Support Network and Go! Southampton. A third of the money raised will go to SSJ – with two other charities also receiving the same from the new initiative to help tackle homelessness.

There are so many more stories we will be telling this year – from supporters to service users, as well as fundraisers and staff. Why not tell us about your story? Email Comms@ssj.org.uk and let us know your story.

A great example of this is the recently launched contactless giving points which have been installed across Southampton as an easy way to donate to chosen charities – one of those being The Society of St James.

The initiative from the Street Support Action Group and GO! Southampton means people can donate easily to support people affected by homelessness with a tap of their contactless bank card.

The article, featured in Businessmag.co.uk says: Street Support Action Group Southampton was formed in 2017 with a community-led approach to help make Southampton a city where no-one needs to sleep rough or beg. The Group is working with GO! Southampton to make sure money that is donated by Southampton’s visitors and residents reaches those who really need it. (You can read the rest of the article here).

As we enter this exciting post-lockdown world – the ways people give will change and this is why we are always open to new ideas and ways to raise money to help those who need it. Contactless donating also makes it easier for us to fundraise in the case of any future pandemics – protecting us as a charity, as well as minimising any hand-to-hand contact if a serious pandemic ever arises again.

We are already signed up with Amazon Smile and Easy Fundraising – both giving customers the chance to support their favourite charity as they shop online. There are many ways to raise money for us – from the traditional route of small events at business or with friends, to donations on our website and even supporting us on JustGiving and even on Facebook – where you can raise money for us simply by choosing to support SSJ when you create a post for friends and family.

How do you raise money for SSJ? Let us know what you’ll be doing to help support us in our 50th year (2022) and beyond.

Photo, SSJ Finance Director Andrew Powell (left) at contactless payment launch, Southampton.

We are aware that times are hard for most people right now and that is why we are delighted that we have been able to meet our first target of £5,000 for our Christmas Meal Appeal.

The first week saw unprecedented support from supporters across the South, helping us reach more than £1,000 within the first 7 days – all leaving powerful messages on LinkedIn which will be shared with staff in the organisation to boost morale.

We reached our original target of £5,000 on Friday, thanks to a generous donation from the team at Garmin, based in Southampton, who donated the £5,000 which would have been spent on their staff Christmas Meal.

This means that there are people affected by homelessness who will be able to enjoy a hot meal at a time of the year when they can feel so alone. Our campaign has been built on their own descriptions of how Christmas makes them feel – from cold to lonely, and from stressed to angry – so we can now make sure we invest time and effort into giving them a different kind of Christmas to the one they are accustomed to.

Help us do more:

We would love to keep the fundraising going to we can look ahead at what we can do next year to give people affected by homelessness the chance to change their lives.

With this in mind, any money raised above the £5000 target will go towards helping vulnerable people take the next step forward in 2021 by buying I.D, bus passes, smart clothes for job interviews, and more.

Anything you can do to help is greatly appreciated and if you can continue to support our appeal, it will change many lives in 2021.

You can continue to support the appeal by clicking here.

We are grateful to all the staff from HSBC in Hampshire who chose to support SSJ for World Homeless Week. I will leave you with words from Sue Young, a Retail Branch Manager for HSBC.

“To support World homeless week we at HSBC decided to have a ‘hat scarf and a laugh‘ day on Friday, the 9th of October. This day was extremely well supported by all our colleagues in branches , Who dressed up and brought in donations. We took many photos during the day and will be making a montage of them to put in our area monthly newsletter.

“We collected in our 11 branches on the south coast and Isle of Wight a variety of hats gloves scarves coats and toiletries, shared funny stories and jokes all day. I collected from five branches 25 bags and Delivered them to St James in Portsmouth to support the homeless.

“I was humbled to speak to Lucy at the Day Centre as to the amazing work you do to support the homeless.

All these donations will make a massive difference to people more vulnerable than ourselves in the Portsmouth area. Likewise the same has been done in Southampton and on the Isle of Wight.”

Thank you to staff members from HSBC for the support. The passion and drive from staff at local businesses truly makes a difference to people affected by Homelessness.

My Journey Community Grants and Southampton Council have awarded £4,000 to the Society of St James and Saints4Sport which will help pay for much-needed mountain bikes.

Saints4Sport offers vulnerable people who have been affected by complex issues the chance to enjoy sporting activities such as mountain biking through the New Forest – which helps with fitness as well as mental health.

The bikes which were being used by the team were starting to fall apart and required regular maintenance to work as they should. The new bikes mean the team will now have 10 new reliable bikes that can be used by the Saints4Sport team members on their road to recovery.

Ashley Christopher, Team Leader at Saints4Sport said: “We are delighted with this grant from MyJourney Community Grants and Southampton Council.

“Being able to purchase the new bikes means we have secured the future of our mountain biking activities which are such a benefit to the service users.

“We regularly head out on cycling activities across the south, including visits to the New Forest. We get to see the benefit this has on the service users through improved mental health and better fitness – so these bikes will play a big part in improving the lives of those who are recovering from homelessness or addictions.”

The Society of St. James Saints4Sport Project is run in partnership with the Saints Foundation and offers free educational, sport, and employment support activities to adults who are affected by the harmful impact of substance misuse, homelessness, poor mental health, and involvement with the Criminal Justice System.

Alongside the physical activities, we also offer many other opportunities for people to develop their skills and confidence, including access to training and education, with courses such as Health and Social Care, First Aid, Stewarding, Criminology, and Customer Service available.

For more information on Saints4Sport, visit: ssj.org.uk/sub-service/saints4sports/

Here at SSJ we are extremely lucky to be supported by so many socially minded local businesses and included in this are the wonderful team at the Southampton offices of transatlantic law firm, Womble Bond Dickinson.

Last year the team raised a significant amount of money, matched by funding from the organisation’s trust, to ensure that our service users received some Christmas cheer.

This month; the team came to our rescue by offering to work on a commercial lease on a pro bono basis relating to the purchase of a light industrial unit and associated office space.

This purchase will allow us to provide a more efficient maintenance and repair service for our vulnerable residents.

We are very grateful to the staff at Womble Bond Dickinson who have taken the time to support the important work that The Society of St James does to prevent homelessness.

Jonathan Hobbs, a real estate partner with WBD said: “It has been a pleasure working with and providing support to the Society of St James. Everyone at the Southampton office really got stuck in raising funds for the Society of St James last Christmas, and it has been excellent to be able to provide some pro bono work for them too.

“It is important for us as a firm to do what we can, so it has been rewarding for us to be able to offer something back to the Society of St James, as an important charity for our community.”

World Homeless Day

October 10th is World Homeless Day and we are raising money to support the vulnerable individuals we work with to move forward, for example by bridging a rental gap when they first start working; or buying a suit for their first interview; or costs for securing necessary identification or even essential white goods when they move off the street and into accommodation.

As little as £15 could buy identification – click here to help.

Now more than ever, we are realising the benefit of being outdoors. Many of us have spent the past few weeks and months tending to our gardens and becoming reacquainted with nature. The same has been happening at one of our homelessness hostels in Aldershot, where service users have spent time creating a new area for plants, and it has helped to support residents’ wellbeing during this difficult time.

Sarah Johnson wrote for The Guardian about a community gardening project in London called Sydenham Gardens, she said: “Sydenham Garden is part of a growing movement devoted to increasing the role that gardening and other forms of “green” therapy can play in patient recovery and rehabilitation settings”.

The service users at our hostel in Aldershot are experiencing the same benefits as those in Sydenham, including increased wellness, a positive impact on mental health, and an overall good feeling.

CAN YOU HELP TO KEEP THIS GOING?  Residents are in need of some much needed items to help them create a raised bed for plants as much of the ground within the garden isn’t plant friendly. One resident in particular, who has been positively impacted by the idea of a garden to tend to, wants to spend his time creating the raised bed.

We are looking for a number of items to make this possible. Please see the list below and contact Hannah Adams-Cox if you can help.

What do we need?

• Raised garden bed kits
• Topsoil/Garden soil
• Plants of all kinds

Please be aware that any offer to deliver items requested will be in Aldershot only and cannot be accepted elsewhere.

If you can help, please contact hannah.adams-cox@ssj.org.uk

At St James Care, our service users are vulnerable – and are isolated away from all signs of spring. We want to give them something to smile about, to brighten their day, to spread as much colour as we can to help them cope with isolation.

We’re looking for donations of flowers, hanging baskets filled with colourful plants, as well as bedding plants – to help bring Spring to the residents and to help them relax and unwind during these testing times.

Do you own or work for a business that can help provide some much-needed colour for our residents?

Email: karen.ward@ssj.org.uk

This means that any time you donate to one of our campaigns, you are helping make a difference to the life of somebody who has been affected by homelessness – by giving us the chance to move them off the streets and into long-term accommodation.

Tackling homelessness is an ongoing problem – it is something we are fighting to end every single day – and while our successes are great, we know that we could be doing a lot more.

We are looking for people who want to back us long-term, via standing order payments. This means we have a long term commitment of funds which we can use to make an even bigger difference to the lives of those we support each and every day.

If you are looking to support us regularly, the easiest way to do this is by standing order. You can donate a fixed amount to us each month – and it automatically comes out of your bank account at a time which suits you.

How to set up a standing order

All you need to do is download the standing order form, fill it out, and send it back to us via post. You can also choose to be updated about the work we do by choosing to be contacted by Email – and we will then make sure we send you updates about the work we are doing, as well as information about our campaigns.

Any amount you can donate monthly will go towards our on-going mission to buy more housing across Hampshire, in order to get people off the streets and into suitable move-on accommodation.

As always, we appreciate everything you do to support SSJ.