By trustee, Annie Waddington-Feather.
With its Christmas tree in the window, and decorations our current home opposite the station has been looking very festive for a while now.
Last week, we celebrated Christmas early when our patron Marcus Bean, at Brompton Cookery School, whipped us up a delicious Christmas feast!
We served 50 Christmas dinners at our Christmas party, and we are very grateful for the help of Reuben and Emma from Csons Shrewsbury in the kitchen, and their wonderful hot drinks.
A huge thank you too goes to Eddie, Craig and the team at St Nicholas Shrewsbury for hosting us in their beautiful venue, and to the school children who put together such thoughtful Christmas present boxes. Take a look at this video we posted to our Facebook page to see some of the fun!
While our new home for 2022 isn’t looking quite so Christmassy, we thought we’d share a peak of what’s inside… Thanks to the amazing skills of Ruth Empson at Gemini Quantify Ltd, you can see the ‘work in progress, and watch how the interior is being transformed into a new community hub. (Please excuse the random packaging, and stacked furniture!).
Ground floor
This is going to be the main hub of activity!
Click here to see a computerised 3D model of the ground floor. Follow the white circles to see work in progress in kitchen and dining area, a fantastic new art and craft activities area, and GP and therapy room.
First floor
The upper floors will primarily be for staff and volunteers.
Click here to see a computerised 3D model of the first floor. Follow the white circles to see work in progress in the upstairs kitchen, volunteer room,
(You can also see our manager Wendy hard at work in her new office too!)
Special thanks
As always, we are indebted to the many individuals and community groups who are so supportive of us. This month, we’d just like to give a shoutout to:
· An amazing team from Edgmond Scout troop, gave up their Saturday to start decorating our craft area. They have also made donations of art materials too.
· Shrewsbury Colleges Group Painting & Decorating Level 1 students are putting into practice what they cover in theory; we’re hoping decades of old wallpaper, dimly lit rooms, and working on-site in the winter weather doesn’t put them off their future career, as they are doing a fantastic job!
· SY Homes Ltd with support from Monks property, is continuing to work on the exterior of our new home.
The spirit of Christmas
This time of year is associated with family, friends, food and warmth. Sadly, not everyone will enjoy these luxuries this year.
Nationwide, more than 274,000 people are homeless in England right now, including 126,000 children, according to recent research published by Shelter. And this number is expected to rise as the fall out of the pandemic continues.
In November, we regularly supported 85 people experiencing homelessness or rough sleeping, and we welcomed an additional 30 people who hadn’t previously needed our help. This makes it a total of 115 people in our town who are experiencing homelessness or rough sleeping.
Over the whole month, we had over 520 visits from people needing support in total. To put this in context, on a daily basis, we welcome 34-36 people needing support through our doors.
Finding permanent accommodation is a very drawn-out process, but last month we are delighted we assisted two people to move into a place they can now call home too.
If you’re looking for a last-minute Christmas gift, why not give the gift of giving, with our Christmas voucher scheme, and support us to support those experiencing challenges in their lives.
Or you can always pop into our shop, and give a pre-loved gift a new home!
There will also be some delivery slots available in some of the 4000 plus retailers on our partner shopping site, Give as you Live. Click here to find out more.
Or of you simply want to donate to our renovations, you can do so via our gofundme page here.
Over 2000 years ago, an inn keeper gave accommodation to a man and a pregnant woman, and three wise men bought gifts for a baby.
We continue in this spirit of giving, offering a safe place for those with chaos and challenges in their lives, providing physical, mental and emotional support, and continuing to reach out to those who need our services, or who just need a bite to eat and a listening ear.
Over Christmas, thanks to our dedicated staff and team of volunteers, we will continue to operate on reduced hours.
Thank you for your ongoing support this year; it’s has been huge, and we are truly humbled by the community’s generosity.
Wishing you all a very safe and merry Christmas, and blessings and peace for 2022.