Aviva Community Fund has provided £1,119 of match funding
Extending our reach: homelessness & mental health
London, England, United Kingdom
Aim
Help us support people who are homeless or experiencing mental ill health, who have been badly affected by the current crisis.
Who we are
For 35 years, Barons Court Project has operated a drop-in centre supporting vulnerable adults who are homeless or living in poverty with mental health difficulties. Many of our guests lack even the most basic needs provision and support, and the majority suffer from social isolation, made all the worse by Covid-19. We are the only drop-in centre of our kind in Hammersmith and Fulham, offering a safe space for respite and recovery, connecting our guests to the community, reducing isolation, and providing opportunities for self-development and participation.
In more normal times, our doors would be open from Monday to Saturday, and we would provide hot meals, showers, access to laundry facilities and an IT suite, and a space to simply be. We would provide one-to-one support in person around improving mental and physical well-being and advice on employment, accommodation and benefits. We would also run activities and classes throughout the week such as drama, relaxation, music, yoga, arts & crafts sessions and trips out. All of these activities break down social isolation, restore dignity and give our guests opportunities to live a fuller life.
The impact of Covid-19
Sadly, like many services, we had to close our doors in March due to the risk of spreading Covid-19 between guests, staff and volunteers. Since then our team has been supporting our guests remotely. We have been able to make weekly phone calls, send regular texts and encouraging cards, provide phones and food and clothes vouchers, as well as providing resources which promote good mental health.
However, for many of our guests, these past few months have been particularly difficult. Some have not had access to a shower for weeks and for others the regular phone call with our team is the only real social contact they have.
These problems will not go away as restrictions ease. Many homeless people currently in temporary emergency accommodation will have nowhere to go when that accommodation provision comes to an end in the coming months and we expect that rates of homelessness in our Borough will climb dramatically just as we head into the winter months.
What we're doing about it
Right now, we're preparing and adapting our day centre to safely reopen in the next few days to enable our guests to come back, use our shower and laundry facilities and meet with our Project Workers one-to-one for advice and support. All of this will be done in line with government guidelines to minimise any risk of spreading the virus through our work.
With our centre open again, we will be able to do far more to provide the hot meals, showers, laundry, personal support, advice, friendship and care that we know have such a big impact on the well-being of our guests.
With social distancing measures in place, the number of people we can have in our centre at any one time is less than half what it would be normally. Therefore, to allow as many people as possible to have access to our services and support, we are expanding our team of Project Workers so that the centre can be open and running for more hours of the day.
How you can help
You can make a donation here to help enable us to reach as many people as possible. A gift of any size can make a real difference to what we're able to achieve.
You can also share our Crowdfunder campaign with your friends and family to help us reach our target.
Thank you for helping us to reach those most in need
This project successfully funded on 7th October 2020