At Barnabus we work to get everyone off the streets for good, we help people into temporary accommodation and their own homes and support them to ensure they can succeed in accommodation and stay off the streets. However there simply are not enough beds for everyone and many people we work with have been sleeping out at night this winter. These people are exhausted, dejected and beginning to lose any hope of a brighter future.

Our resettlement and case workers are busy supporting people in living in accommodation helping them to overcome the root cause of their homelessness and to succeed in life off the streets. We are seeing great successes in their lives and are looking forward to seeing them thrive to break the cycle of homelessness for good. However our frontline teams who support people rough sleeping at our Beacon support centre are continuing to encounter and respond to the deep struggles people face at this harshest time of year.

Their jobs are increasingly complex and difficult as not only is it harder than ever to engage with people low on hope to make positive steps (like receiving NHS mental health care) they can also be impatient and irritable after yet another night on the cold streets. But we never give up on anyone and always try to support them as best we can, making their days easier by providing them with the basics of showers, clothing, healthcare and food. This helps them to survive the hardships of winter on the streets, but that’s not why Barnabus exists.

We are still working every day to help them and encourage them to work towards a life off the streets, to engage with mental health support, addiction support, healthcare and to join the waiting lists for beds and accommodation. We are seeing progress with this, people are still signing up to our addiction recovery sessions run by Change Grow Live, we have new people joining our Partner Volunteer programme where people we support can learn skills and give back, but our favourite thing this winter has been the success of our new music therapy session run in partnership with Nordoff & Robbins. Watch this space we have some exciting songs made in this session we will be sharing throughout the year. We never give up on someone and believe in everyone's ability to change even when they don’t see it themselves.

Please support people experiencing homelessness this winter and beyond, helping people on their journey, every step of the way. A regular donation will help us to continue to run our services and plan to expand them to support even more people off the streets and into a home.