I was homeless once too......I know exactly what it feels like to live on the streets. It has a devastating effect on your physical and mental wellbeing. I was one of the lucky ones, after being found. Whilst commuting from Finsbury Park I was saddened and quite shocked to see the amount of rough sleepers under the bridge. I decided that something must be done to help, and so LONDON HOMELESS WELFARE TEAM was launched on New Year’s Day 2020. We have been going from strength to strength and never looked back since. We were one of the first to give out Covid-19 packs at the beginning of March. We are please that many other organisations are doing their own packs too. The media soon were extremely interested in our packs and the work we do. I was contacted my mainstream media for interviews and have discussed homelessness on various national radio stations, which was daunting, but it was vital to remind everyone of how so many people are suffering.
We have made some wonderful friends on our journey and collaborated with so many amazing charities from whom we have learnt so much.
All 6 members donate £10 each, which ensures that we will always have some funding to enable us to help those that are homeless and vulnerable.
We are now in a position to expand and have signed up many volunteers. We see ourselves holding major outreach projects and liaising with organisations that can help with housing/mental health and alcohol/drug addiction.
We are trying to raise funds in order to purchase a minibus so that we can double our outreach volunteers and ensure that we can help more and more of those less fortunate in our society. I have self funded an accredited course that will qualify me as a Substance and Alcohol misuse councillor.
I found my purpose. I was one of the lucky ones...........