Help our centre for the homeless and vulnerable

Aim

We are seeking support for our cafe and Support Hub which is open 7 days a week, 365 days a year to help the homeless and vulnerable.

Operating for 11 years, Sanctus is a charity tackling homelessness and other vulnerabilities in Chelmsford and many surrounding areas. We are the only day-centre in a significant part of Essex, opening 7 days per week, 365 days per year and supporting an evolving basis of over 300 people. Sanctus has opened every day of the pandemic.

Sanctus operates a three-story building, on our ground floor is the Sanctus Café which provides a safe and warm environment. We provide free nutritious meals which are served alongside hot and cold drinks, snacks, sandwiches and pastries. In addition to this, we distribute clothes, tents, sleeping bags, sanitary products, toiletries and other essential items. Through our Café, we are able to offer food, warmth and a safe haven, but this service is designed as a gateway to build trust and lead individuals on to accessing wider support. In 2021 over 15,000 meals were served and over 16,000 food items were collected from local businesses and distributed that otherwise would have gone to waste.

Our Support Hub on the 2nd and 3rd floors offers free support services, including 1:1 mentoring, assistance with gaining housing and sustaining tenancies, benefits applications, furnishing homes, addiction and mental health support, health and wellbeing advice and signposting, and a range of other advocacy services. We work to target the root causes of why someone is homeless, at risk of being homeless or other vulnerabilities. Just one support session may be the one that turns someone’s life around or prevents life impacting actions. Over 2,000 support sessions were completed in 2021.

We believe that everyone should have a safe and secure home, food on the table and network of support. Our aim is to help individuals take steps to lead positive lives for themselves, which also benefits the wider community.

Financial Wellbeing: 

Both our cafe service and Support Hub are designed to help people who have fallen on hard times. Our cafe is a space tackling food poverty, where people can come and spend the day and eat. Our food package includes: 

• Breakfast (toast and cereal)
• Unlimited hot and cold drinks
• Sandwiches, pies and pastries
• Items from our food bank style service which can be taken away
• A hot, freshly cooked meal
• Dessert when possible

Often the food provision is what brings people to us, especially those who have fallen on hard times and may struggle to feed themselves and their families. Through this initial contact, we are able to refer people on to the support sessions in the Hub where we can work with them to tackle the issues that they are facing. The support sessions are geared towards giving people the support and tools to live independently. A lot of our work involves supporting people with their financial wellbeing and putting things in place so they can manage their own finances whilst living a good life. 

For instance, we may have a victim of domestic abuse access our services who may not have access to any money, we would then work with them, alongside other agencies, to give them back their financial independence. We may also have someone who is homeless in need of a bank account, we go with them to the branch to set the account up and help them to use online banking etc. Or, we may have someone who is vulnerably housed, who may be struggling to pay bills and buy food, again we work with them to budget and work out ways to resolve the issues they may be facing. 

How will my donation be spent: 

• £3.89 - Could provide a food package for someone for one day, including a freshly cooked, hot meal.
• £5 - Could pay for transport for someone to attend an important appointment
• £25 - Could provide specialist advice and support from a Sanctus staff member to help someone to turn their life around.
• £50 - Could buy essential items for someone after being re-housed from the streets.
• £100 - Could provide someone with 1:1 support across multiple sessions to help with obtaining accommodation, addiction support, benefits issues and returning to work.

This project successfully funded on 12th April 2022