A Massive Thank You
A big thank you to all of our venues, volunteers, funders and supporters that enabled us to deliver this years shelter season. We had 49 placements in our shelters this year, 19 more than last year.
This year throughout the shelter sector, there were a number of challenges. The amount of people who were experiencing homelessness had increased, and all shelters including Robes had more referrals than could be catered for. There was a significant rise in guests who had recently acquired refugee status, and had the additional challenge of learning to navigate the UK system. Combined with this, it became increasingly difficult to find move on accommodation - especially affordable private rental.
A huge thank you to our advice workers Alex and Natalie for striving to find options for our guests, and to our interim shelter coordinator Macey for supporting our team leaders and venues.
We are hoping to strengthen our Robes community over Summer, in order to support even more guests next season. We greatly appreciate all the efforts that our volunteers made, and hope that they will encourage others to support next season. Feedback forms will be shortly going out, so we can learn and improve, and we are hoping to have a volunteer event in June to recognise the incredible contribution that our volunteers make.
Volunteer Feedback
We’re asking all volunteers to complete a short anonymous survey to give us an idea of their experience this season, so we can make improvements for the next.
Also - hold the date of Saturday June 8th, when we’re hoping to have a thank you event for all of our volunteers (date to be confirmed).
If you volunteered in the shelters even once between November last year and March this year, then please fill out the survey below.
Byrne Bros Run for Robes
The incredible team at Byrne Bros continued their support of Robes recently, by running either 5k or 10k at an event at Battersea Park. They raised an amazing £1,760!! Thank you so much all, it will certainly help our guests - we hope your legs weren’t too tired!
Lobby on Parliament
Last month, Lisa joined other CEO’s from the homeless sector across the country for a lobby on Parliament. The aim was to push homelessness to the top of all parties manifesto ahead of the election, to try and ensure adequate resourcing and support to the sector regardless of who is in power.
This lobby was organised by Homeless Link and Riverside, and the four main asks are in the pictures below.
Greenwich University
Robes CEO Lisa was recently privileged to be a guest lecturer at Greenwich University, talking to second year nursing students about homelessness.
Multi-agency working and supporting people experiencing homelessness holistically is one of the key things that can help stop repeat homelessness. It is wonderful that Greenwich University has recognised this, and they dedicated a whole week to educating their students on this topic.
It was great to help dispel preconceptions and stigma, and focus on the importance of person centred and trauma informed care.
London Marathon
To sponsor Sam to run the London Marathon, please click on the below link: