At One Big Family we don’t just hand things out on the streets, there is so much more we do. Our aim is to signpost people to the services they really need and support them. Recently some of our volunteers took first aid courses which may come in very useful on street. We also meet with other services such as the council, housing, addiction support to see where there are gaps and where improvements can be made. Yesterday I met with a lady from the DWP who was amazing and so i

So some of you may know me or Mike smith, We are a part of One Big Family, We do a food run around Victoria on a Wednesday night. I have recently just come back to helping around Victoria as i became homeless and am just finding my feet. We have recently just got a new contract with a cafeteria in an office in Victoria who kindly donate the food they do not sell, we took the food out with us tonight and the homeless around Victoria were very grateful for it. we also helped a

Outreach last night was minus myself due to illness. Justine, Natalie, Lewis and Oscar were on street to offer our help to those in need last night. We were met with more good news last night that we have seen for a long time has moved into temporary accommodation and is receiving the support he needs for long term accommodation. Unfortunately with the good news, came bad and we came across a person newly homeless who was distressed. This person is receiving some support but

For the second year in a row, One Big Family have been nominated for the Pride in Medway awards, for their amazing volunteer work revolving around the homeless community. They won the award in 2017, and have gone above and beyond yet again this year, opening a brand new homeless emergency winter refuge centre for the rough sleepers of Medway. The scheme was set up to provide a warm place for the homeless to sleep on any night that the temperature drops below zero, between Nov

Wet was the key word last night. Trying to keep the items we take into the street dry. We half succeeded. We had lots of cookies and pastries from Tesco, courtesy of Fareshare. It was a quieter night than usual and we hoped that some may have found cover for the night. We gave the usual hot drinks, food, gloves, hats etc to those who we saw and needed items. We also had a couple of conversations about how to start the ball rolling for housing. Justine has recently been suppor

Medway Soup Kitchen From our lovely volunteer Nurse Lucy Davis... So last night I went to help out at the soup kitchen . When I got there everything was setup and the smell of cooked food was lovely there was chicken pie, sweet and sour , stew and other lovely delights. As I walked over to start to help I was greeted with hugs and terms of endearment (very heart warming as I feel it’s a sign of trust) . So I offer to help where I can but my eyes are on the ones we are here t

Medway Homeless Emergency Winter Refuge We have now provided well over 300 beds to the homeless so far this Winter - it costs nearly £100 per night to open & we have been open for 28 nights so far... we receive no official funding, and solely rely on donations. Thank you to Nicky Pearson & Jo Brown from Pathways to Independence, for taking time out of their weekend (on Sunday night) to come and speak to guests - referrals were done, benefit advice given, and several people no

Outreach last night was busy. We never know what to expect so we go prepared. With SWEP being in place our priority was asking rough sleepers if we could help get them into emergency accommodation. Two took us up on this and Justine set about making the appropriate phone calls. Both were offered a warm safe place to sleep last night. The rest were fed. We used all the Pot Noodles we took with us, lovely Christmas chocolates and biscuits were given out along with underwear, so

Today I haven’t unfortunately been on street. As a registered charity we do have another job to do. A financial one. This means keeping accounts, track of physical donations, future expected expenditure and looking after the money that has been donated. We even have to ‘value’ volunteers time!!This is not a simple job. I have spent a good 6 hours today getting all our paperwork together for our end of year and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. It’s not just me doing this pa

2017 has been quite a year.. The Yorkshire Branch started in January and is going from strength to strength - big thanks to Jayne & team and all who support them In London, Mike is still doing homeless outreach and distributing food to those in need on a daily basis - not to mention the children's clothing/toys/essentials he took to those affected by the Grenfell Tower disaster - despite ill health he still continues to support others ❤ In Maidstone our weekly outreach co