Holistic creative cafe sessions for women at risk

Aim

Creative holistic cafe sessions to build confidence for women who are isolated or at risk, promoting social inclusion and personal choice

Walk through the door with us to meet women isolated or at risk, needing a break from the endless cycles of homelessness, with multiple lifestyle issues.When women walk through the door into Safe and Sound Dorset they walk into a place of safety and transformation.

We set up Safe and Sound Dorset in 2017 to create a safe space where women are able to build their confidence through creativity and community.

Most women who attend our holistic creative sessions drop in initially for help with appointments for housing, court, hospital or lifestyle issues. Our creative hub soon becomes as addictive as the substances they find on the street.

It is an inclusive community encouraging women to participate and be creatively productive, reaching out to the next woman who wanders in from the street. Everyone has a story to share that will often help the next one who comes through the door.

Our Cafe outreach and late night outreach meets women at their most vulnerable, on the street, often homeless or sofa surfing, needing a listening ear as well as help to attend their next appointment ( housing, doctors, hospital, court.) Our part time staff and volunteers accompany women to these.

Homelessness is often longterm  involving multiple cycles of rough sleeping, sofa surfing, temporary lodgings and B&Bs. A trap that some women can not escape from due to the trauma inflicted on them throughout their younger days and the choices made to cover the wounds of their heart.

The healing of trauma is what we as a charity would love to help.  Each woman is worth so much and we would like to invest at least 6 sessions of therapeutic holistic support for each woman who is caught in the homelessness cycle, isolated or at risk.

The therapeutic sessions will be person-centred and varied. It may be art or it may be pet/horse therapy or nature therapy or counselling.  Which ever is chosen, it will be the beginning of a future that will be more stable, more safe and more secure because the core of a person‘s being is where security begins. The accommodation provision resulting  will be the outcome of a healthy, happier person, more able to retain their longterm housing.

Our therapeutic support workers will work 1-1 with women through our creative sessions. They will work alongside women to find the individually chosen holistic support so that each woman can attend at least 6 sessions of therapeutic intervention (£150) but ideally 12 sessions (£300)

We see this as a good start to enable someone to begin to unwrap the buried longterm issues, build up trust, making a transformational difference to their life.

Testimonial
‘I  can not express to you the lengths of despair and trauma this journey for us as a family has been, but finally I felt that ‘Safe and Sound Dorset’ allowed me to talk about the experience whilst safeguarding my daughter who was homeless.

The Friday evening meal at the Café is the most wonderful idea. It allows vulnerable women to feel welcome, safe and cared for. It is often very dignified and we all eat together sharing stories and events of the past week. I have been to counselling before and have separated myself from my daughter’s lifestyle in order to manage an effective coping strategy. However, meeting with her  in a safe setting led by women who are aware of the challenges she faces on the streets has been priceless. It has made me less afraid and better able to manage risks for myself and my family.

 ‘Safe and Sound Dorset’ are the groundworkers meeting basic needs of providing food, warmth, and safety for vulnerable women on the streets. Perhaps it is because of this that women can be encouraged to engage with services.

The rough sleepers team had eventually engaged with her and found her housing. I had a call from social services who asked me to find my daughter as quickly as possible. It was Safe and Sound Dorset who had arranged to see her and took her to housing.  The Safe and Sound Dorset team are flexible, work as outreach and fill the gap when social services can’t be available; after 5pm. She has been placed in housing, but there is no food provided and she has to wait for her money. So once again the team has contacted me and said that if she needs help with a shop a member of the team will do that.’

This project successfully funded on 8th March 2022