The Society of St James are delighted to have been awarded the contract to continue providing substance misuse services and recovery housing for Portsmouth residents on behalf of Portsmouth City Council.    We have partnered with Inclusion (Part of the Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust) to deliver a service focused on helping our clients make their lives better.

The contract has now started and we are launching our new website www.portsmouthrecovery.org to support a more accessible service.  Please visit the site to find out more or if you’re concerned about your drug or alcohol use, or affected by someone else’s.

We’re going to be running a new feature where we talk to our members of staff about their work at SSJ and why they love working here.

We have hundreds of members of staff from unique and interesting backgrounds, some have been with us for years, others have come to us because they believe in our vision to end homelessness – and some have been service users for SSJ and now work with us to support others in a similar situation to what they were in.

Today we have a blog written by Sean Smith, a team leader for SSJ who works with some of of the most vulnerable people at SSJ. Sean has been with us a few years and wanted to write about why he loves working for SSJ.

Sean Smith:

I have worked with a variety of vulnerable adults and children across Hampshire for 22 years. After frequently working in partnership with them for many of these years, in 2019 I was lucky enough to land myself a job with the Society of St James. I had applied for positions previously, and it was no secret to my now-boss that I had been desperate to join him at SSJ for aeons, but hadn’t found the right vacancy that suited my skillset and experience.

All of a sudden, the chance to take the reins of a pioneering “housing first”-style service came to my attention. It was a no brainer and I applied. Getting the phone call to tell me I was successful was a moment of sheer elation. Next thing I knew, I was working for an inclusive, supportive charity that felt more like a family or a group of old friends than what I had experienced previously. Then, of course, the entire world went bonkers and we all faced a two-year period the likes of which we could have never imagined.

Throughout the uncertain, often desolate, always challenging pandemic period, I was privileged to be tasked with guiding and building the Supported Lettings Team, which provides intense, almost bespoke, psychologically and trauma-informed support for clients with long, chequered histories of homelessness, complex substance misuse and mental illness. I had moved from a businesslike, politics driven prior role to one where I looked forward to waking up each day to find out what the day held in store, working alongside and hopefully helping to nurture a team of dedicated, talented and hardworking staff.

The pandemic was a challenge we all met head-on, and gave me and my team some work experiences that we will probably never encounter again. Having to face scowling faced members of the public as we bulk shopped dry goods for our clients in supermarkets. Driving around the City trying to find hand sanitiser. Finding hand sanitiser that was made from a premium brand of gin.

Administering so may lateral flow tests that I could probably now do one with a blindfold on. Attempting to try and enforce a litany of social distancing rules and regulations with clients that have no intention of following protocols. Discovering the magical, buffering-tastic hinterland that is the online meeting. I loved it all really. I wouldn’t want to do it all again though.

I was privileged to be tasked with establishing not one but two brand new services for the Society, which are still going strong and in the case of the Supported Lettings Team, have expanded. I have had an amazing opportunity to work with some of the most unique, complex and rewarding clients. I now have some fascinating partnership working with a specialist NHS team, and work within a sector and with clients that very few people ever get to experience.

I am based in a beautiful house that has been developed and renovated with an eye on providing a homely, psychologically informed environment. I am seeing positive results. I see amazing staff doing amazing things with people that have gone through unimaginable trauma in their lives. I am so proud to be a part of it. Every day is different – I continue to encounter learning opportunities and am broadening my knowledge and experience at every turn, supported by a wonderful staff and a supportive management structure.

Coming to work for SSJ is the best decision I ever made. I am now in a role that combines all of my previous experiences, with the added responsibility of guiding and supporting other staff. With the successful tenders and expansion within Hampshire and beyond, I work for an organisation that I am genuinely proud of, and will happily sing the praises of each and every service under its umbrella from the rooftops.

Thank you to Sean for taking time to write about his work at SSJ

There are many ways to support SSJ, you can donate to help support people without a home, find out more about other ways you can support us, or if you are like Sean, maybe you’d like to work for SSJ – and you can find out about jobs we have available here.

We are fast approaching Christmas and people are already busily following street lights under the haze of the cold evenings, watching the displays in windows as they search for a gift to share with their loved ones which tells them they are not alone.

Christmas for most people is a time of reflection and joy. It’s a time when we can come together and recognise how lucky we are to be able to enjoy time with friends and family, reflecting on the year behind us and focusing on celebrating of love, forgiveness and togetherness.

It’s the opposite for those in our care as they come to grips with a Christmas away from the comforts of a warm home. They won’t be unwrapping presents in front of loved ones, they won’t be anticipating the taste of a cooked bird and the feast that accompanies it and they won’t sit back reminiscing with family members about days gone by.

Donate to our 2021 appeal by clicking here

By supporting our Christmas appeal, you’re providing hope, happiness and a little bit of the Christmas spirit to people who have and expect nothing at a time of year where loneliness can impact mental health and emotional wellbeing.

If you want to read more about our Christmas Appeal, visit our dedicated page and read about Jason’s journey – from homelessness at Christmas to the support he has received from The Society of St James, where he is now planning for a better and brighter future and a Christmas he can enjoy in 2021.

In 2020 we were able spend £4,500 on Asda Gift Vouchers for residents, approximately £4,200 on Christmas dinners for residents with suitable facilities, and where this wasn’t possible the Cafe in the Park produced a special Christmas hamper which was distributed to residents. Many residents were able to enjoy spending time with other service users and the true spirit of Christmas was in place for those who benefited from the 2020 campaign.

Donate to our campaign by visiting this link and help us raise £10,000 in 2021.

If you want to support our campaign or would like more information, email Dennis.Jones@SSJ.org.uk 

Having social areas where our service users can de-stress, relax and take time out is an important part of their journey. Just as we all enjoy gardening or being in spaces that make us feel relaxed and motivated, it is equally as important that we are able to provide the same foundations for those who have a history of homelessness.

A recent article by the Guardian spoke about this, saying that “research has shown that mindfulness exercises that focus one’s attention on the here and now and stop our minds wandering to the past or worrying about the future are an important therapeutic tool.”

At the Society of St James, we believe that providing a home, a garden, or a place that makes somebody feel good about themselves is part of their ongoing journey which gives them hope and makes them feel good about their future.

Thank you to Brodie and his team for their invaluable work to support people affected by homelessness.

Find out more about Green Fingers Gardening Specialists here

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.

Back in the summer of 1972 we saw the launch of the first digital watch, Atari set the video-game world in motion with Pong and the VW Beetle became the most popular car ever sold, with more than 15m sales since launch.

That summer also saw the very first service users take shelter in St James Church Hall, (St Nicholas Church, in Bernard Street, Southampton), in what became the very start of our endeavour to end Homelessness.

Since then we have increased the amount of housing for people affected by homelessness, improved support for people with complex issues such as substance misuse, as well as providing mental health support as a psychologically informed charity.

The society supports vulnerable people in overcoming challenges in their lives that prevent them from leading a fulfilling and rewarding life. We believe that having a safe place to call home is a fundamental human right and without this everything is a challenge.

Dennis Jones, who works in fundraising for SSJ says: “This is a time to tell the stories from 50-years of supporting people affected by homelessness. We want to hear from anybody who has worked with or been supported by SSJ.

We know there are many stories to tell and we want to celebrate the work done by our incredible staff and the journeys undertaken by people who have quite literally changed their lives. We want to share experiences from the past and present as we head into the future with our eyes fully on ending homelessness once and for all.“

Turning 50

We are fast approaching our 50th anniversary, at a time where digital watches can handle phone calls and millions of people now play video games for a living – yet homelessness has continued to affect people on every continent on earth. The world may have changed since 1972, but our goals haven’t.

We started out with 12-men in a hostel and now help thousands of people affected by homelessness each year. Our projects, such as Café in the Park and Jamie’s Computers have given service users the chance to step into employment – which gives much needed self-belief and hope, often leading to long-term employment elsewhere.

We wouldn’t be here without the support of the thousands of people across Hampshire who have donated, volunteered and been there by our side since day one, helping us spread the message of our work far and wide – together we have transformed countless lives.

The Golden Jubilee

As part of our build-up to our 50th anniversary next year, we will be publishing 50 stories from the Society of St James, from service users and supporters to staff – telling the stories you don’t usually hear and helping share the positive messages that we see every day – life-changing moments captured by people who have been here helping us tackle the ever-present problem of homelessness.

We welcome you in helping us celebrate our 50th anniversary. We will have more information on our plans over the coming months.

Want to support us during our Golden Jubilee year? Email: Dennis.Jones@SSJ.org.uk

They discussed first reactions to lockdown 1 and their initial fears, shared stories from the frontline, and talked about how proud they are of everyone involved.

Dennis kicked off by asking the Senior Managers what their first thoughts for SSJ were when Boris Johnson stood in front of Downing Street back in May 2020 and announced a full lockdown for the whole of the UK.

Unsurprisingly and unanimously all Senior Managers reflected on the immediate need to keep staff, residents, and service users safe but to also keep as many services as possible running. They talked of how almost immediately resources were pushed to the frontline with a flurry of activity to try to secure and install PPE and IT equipment. 

Operations Director, Nicky Wilsenham, reflected on the need to find ways to “give an unclear message some clarity” She remembers thinking “how do we control this, how do we police this, do we police this?”

For Operations Director, Mike Taylor and his teams, they were facing the immediate problem of how to meet the Government’s ‘Everyone In’ directive and how to immediately house the 30-40 people known to be living on Portsmouth’s streets. Mike stated “we couldn’t have been in a worse position” and remembers feeling somewhat in shock.  

For Operations Director, Tony Keall, his immediate concern was for SSJ’s care home where “we can’t distance people, they are in a shared environment, we have to give intimate care and we cannot withdraw the service”. Tony said it was a ‘scary time’

For Chief Executive, Trevor Pickup, his attention was turning to quick solutions, and even shared a desire to develop festival-type encampments in City Parks to provide tents for those who were street homeless. 

Trevor laughs now that the councils did not take too kindly to this idea and thankfully better solutions were sought including hotels and student accommodation being taken over by our staff to support those who were homeless and vulnerable.

Trevor remembers trying to “grapple with how fast the virus would progress” and questioned, “how wild and creative could we be to solve some life-threatening problems”.

Dennis asked the Senior Managers to recall some of the success stories from the last year.

Both Trevor and Andy, Director of Finance and Central Services, spoke of the adaptability of staff to deal in such a reactive way to the pandemic. Trevor applauded the new ways in which staff quickly adapted through the use of technology (for example online meetings) and how staff quickly restructured their work and places of work to ensure our services could continue safely. 

Trevor said he saw a “huge sense of collaboration and commitment.”  

Andy said that despite the pandemic “we kept the organisation moving forward in a strategic way. We bought a new care home. We bought new property to house even more vulnerable people – incredible!”  Whilst at the same time adapting property to keep people safe in super-quick time and reacting to ever-changing government pandemic advice”

For our Ops Director’s stories were more operational. Tony spoke of how immensely proud he is of how staff, residents, and service users kept Covid-19 out of the vast majority of services during 2020 and recounted many “individual acts of resilience and bravery”. He remembered the heat of summer 2020 and despite the heat, the care home staff turning up day after day in full PPE.

Mike talked about how SSJ’s Substance Misuse workers, within a matter of hours, were “delivering methadone directly to peoples’ addresses” rather than meeting them in the Recovery Hub. He is hugely proud of how his Portsmouth team, alongside partners, opened 2 hotels and housed over 200 people safely in those hotels which was “just astonishing in the timeframe”.

Nicky talked of her teams in Southampton and how they quickly accommodated incredibly vulnerable individuals in the hostels. “Staff went above and beyond”, “an outstanding job,” she said. She talked of how adaptable the criminal justice team was to changing circumstances, later demonstrating increased engagement with service users during the pandemic. Nicky also praised the central office for keeping everything going and talked of how we “Really pulled together as an organisation”

On asking how supporters can help our work….

The Senior Management talked of the importance of supporter donations to our charitable work. Trevor explained that donations are used in a couple of ways from “small scale items of expenditure” for example “for residents who need help with soap, towels, items of clothing.”. 

Trevor explained that we run a residents welfare fund at SSJ which is really important in supporting recovery. 

He then went on to talk of the importance of donations to our acquiring new properties to be ring-fenced for those with a history of homelessness. He explained that “the houses are purchased using government grants however we need to cover the costs of furniture and additional building costs, so some donations will be invested in this”.

Tony went on to explain the importance of monetary donations to ensure “we can do things that really make a difference” going on to talk about the online music sessions that are about to roll-out across our Care Homes in Partnership with The Soco Music Project. Tony also talked about non-monetary donations and how they can make a real difference explaining that during the hand sanitizer shortage, in March, we were hugely grateful to Bombay Sapphire Gin for their donation of hand sanitiser. 

Tony mused “we probably had the best smelling hand sanitizer”. Nicky added that thanks to our supporters’ things were happening in the hostels that helped to pass the time during lockdown such as “Decorating communal spaces – getting everyone involved”. She went on to say “without support and donations we wouldn’t be able to do that”.

Andy talked about how donations kept us running during lockdown, IT kit for example so staff could continue to work from home. 

The charity is very proud that so few people were furloughed during the pandemic and that is in part due to our supporter donations. “Additional funding is invaluable to fund these things”. Andy went on to talk about our plans to improve WiFi across the organisation not only to improve the way we deliver our services but also for service users as well. 

Any donations towards this will be extremely helpful.

The charity will be celebrating its 50th Anniversary next year and the ‘Time Served’ at SSJ by the Senior Management Team varies greatly so Dennis asked the team if they had any stories to share. Quite an emotional and heartfelt response followed…

Tony, having been with the organisation for # years reflected on the changes the organisation has been through. He remembers that there were “30-40 people when I started, we were just in Southampton with a handful of houses and a hostel”. He went on to say “to see the organisation we have grown into – it’s quite something.  In the olden days we used to make it up as we went along – in a good way. We’d identify the need and just go out and meet it.”  Now Tony feels “we have been drawn into a more professional environment, and it sometimes feels a bit more constrained. “ Having said that he felt that because of this the “Organisation had become more professional, more accountable and all of that is a good thing”. His final wistful words were “it’s been quite a journey”.

Mike joining SSJ at a similar time to Tony gave a more recent and emotional account of early last year when he was involved, with staff, in the “setting up of Havant Road for incredibly medically vulnerable individuals and seeing how relieved they were when they were housed with us. They were off the streets, out of shared of accommodation, and fearful for their lives of getting Covid cause these were the people that were dying back in March. And they came into accommodation, lovely room, self-contained, food was being brought to the service, so were their medications from the substance misuse team, and it all happened within 10 days.”  

Nicky as the “new kid on the block” talked of her love of visiting the projects and meeting the clients. She went on to say that what “impressed me since joining SSJ is that Trevor, being the CE actually knows quite a lot of the residents and clients”.   She went on to say that “everybody is just so supportive of each other”.   She recounted her recent experience of doing a shift at one of our hostels “plus doing a shift at 10 Southampton Street is awesome, doing a shift when it was just me and student on donation day”.

Dennis then asked for any final words and, now warmed-up, the Senior Management team were extremely keen to give thanks to all those involved in our efforts over the last year…

Andy said “a massive thank you to our staff. They have been incredible this year. We asked a huge amount of our staff both in services and outside of services. We’ve asked people to put themselves literally in the face of the virus, put up with the fact that they might end up getting it. The response to that has been amazing”. Andy went on to thank the staff in the “back-office environments where we literally closed the office one day and said you are going to have to work from home tomorrow. People have made do in their bedrooms, and their kitchens, on their laps whilst potentially trying to home-school their children”. 

Nicky echoed that “everybody worked above and beyond. Dealing with challenges our residents have thrown up” and wanted to say thank you for the ”help and support from my team and colleagues”. Tony highlighted that the “incredible effort that staff have put in has come at no small personal cost.  Our staff did an amazing job before this started and then they have had to manage this additional level of anxiety and stress”. Tony wanted to recognise the managers who “have done an amazing job. They have been councillors, listened to peoples’ fears, come up with solutions whilst at the same time managing all those same emotions themselves”.  

Mike thanked the board “because they allow us to take a lot of risks”. He went on to explain that “Setting up these hotels, moving as fast as we were with some of the housing, relies on us being able to spend the money upfront”  

And as the final note, Trevor said he was “Hugely proud of what we have done as an organisation. Staff have been fabulous, the board have been fabulous”. Trevor reflected by to 1972 where SSJ started a “night-shelter where we had 15 men living in a communal hall, all living in an open way as a fundamental basic night-shelter”. He went on to say that “Moving from there over 50 years we have bee been able to develop hugely, we are still focussing on providing services to vulnerable people and are optimistic about what we can do going forward.”

Since filming this video we did we did have a outbreak of Covid in one of our care homes which was dealt with admirably by members of staff. We will cover this in a video soon.

The video can be viewed here

It has been a challenging year for everybody – but the support from people and businesses from across Hampshire has meant a great deal to SSJ staff and service users.

We all hope that 2021 will be a better year for all.

Let’s End Homelessness.

From all at SSJ

Some selected 2020 news stories:

2020 in Review

International Women’s Day

First Place Award for Southern Co-op Partnership

Stories from Lockdown

SSJ and Re-Cycle Bikes Help Key Workers

Find more news stories here

Across our projects we are putting in an effort to make Christmas as joyous as possible for people who have a history of homelessness and addiction.

Back in November we launched our Christmas Appeal to raise money so we can provide a delicious hot Christmas meal to as many of our services users as possible. Alongside this we put together a ‘non-contact’ option for people to purchase gifts for vulnerable adults just to make sure our appeal was as COVID free as possible.

When we spoke to service users during August and September, we asked them for their thoughts on Christmas which made up the basis for our appeal in 2020. Hearing words such as hurt, anger, frustration, pain, sadness about a time we all know to be about joy, love, happiness was difficult to hear, but it cemented just how much we want to do to offer a positive festive season for them.

The Staff Make the Difference

As always, Project Managers and Support Workers across the charity are spending many hours, days and weeks putting together plans for our service users to enjoy the best Christmas possible under current conditions.

CEO of SSJ, Trevor Pickup said: “Many of our staff will be working over the Christmas period, as the needs of many people do not stop over the holiday period.   This year, staff have more to deal with than normal, with the virus making life more difficult and complex.  I appreciate the commitment of my colleagues to continue and to carry on, during this challenging time, and thank them for all their work.”

We receive many positive comments about our work on social media, as well as Just Giving and these comments help boost the morale of staff at difficult times.

Thank you to everybody who has left a positive comment or supported our Christmas Campaign. You make a massive difference to the morale of staff and service users.

Our Christmas Appeal is still running, if you want to support the campaign please click here.