Where I've been

I've mentioned that I work for Crisis over the festive period, but haven’t really said anything about what I do there.   You may be interested;  I won't mind if you're not.

Crisis works year round to provide services for homeless people, but most of their work happens at Christmas. Temporary centres are set up in London (and for the first time this year, Newcastle) staying open for a week. Some of them are day centres, which homeless people who do have a bed for the night (a place in a shelter, or staying with friends) can visit to access services and entertainment. Some, like the one I work in, are residential centres which stay open 24 hours a day and provide accommodation as well.

The centres are staffed entirely by volunteers. Just stop and think about that for a minute. For an entire week chefs, medical professionals, lawyers, housing advisors, hairdressers, dentists and opticians provide professional services. Musicians, performers and artists run workshops and provide entertainment. Drivers ferry guests from day centres to residential centres, take them to doctors and pick them up from hospitals, while more drivers deliver food and equipment to the centres. These people all give their time and services for free. Meals are served, clothes are altered and mended, bedding is washed, and the centres need to be kept clean. Those things are done by volunteers too. All of this needs to be co-ordinated – an operations centre keeps track of who is where and which services are used, how many beds are still available and how many staff are on-site.  More volunteers.

On top of this, each centre - there were seven across London this year - is staffed by a team of general volunteers, who provide companionship for guests and make sure that they know about the services and activities available. General volunteers work one of two shifts at the day centres, or one of three shifts at the residential ones. Each shift has a shift leader and one or more assistant shift leaders - known as ‘green badges’ because that’s what they wear – who are responsible for the smooth running of the centre.  The green badges aren't paid anything either; they're experienced volunteers who have agreed to take on the extra responsibility.

People volunteer for all sorts of reasons. Some because they can't spend Christmas with family; some because they've seen far too much of their family and want an escape; others just because they feel, at this time of year, they want to give something back. Some volunteers have experienced homelessness themselves; this year two of our volunteers (including one of the assistant shift leaders) had previously been guests at a Crisis centre, while another told me she hadn’t been sure how she would cope when she signed up as she’d only moved into sheltered accommodation a few months earlier. Before that she’d been sleeping in an airport terminal.

For the past few years I’ve worked the night shift (10.15pm to 8.30am) at a women-only centre. I’m a Key Volunteer which means managing the work done by the general volunteers on shift, and acting as a link between them and the green-badges, who know what needs to be done. There are a set number of duties, called “gaps”, which need to be rotated every hour; front door duties, manning a tea bar, supervising the shower area. We need drivers on standby in case items need to be picked up or guests transported ; kitchen helpers to help the volunteer chefs prepare meals, and during the night we clean the entire centre. It’s my job to make sure that all of these things get done, so I spend most of the evening racing around with lists of names and rotas, trying to make sure everyone is where they are supposed to be, and knows what they are doing. And, at three in the morning, that they're managing to stay awake.  When there are plenty of volunteers it's managable; on the nights we were short it was more like trying to pin jelly to a wall.

The centres have all closed down now -  Crisis at Christmas is over for another year.  As the week drew to an end, I kept being asked the same question: "What will happen to the guests now?".  The truth is, I don't know.  We had around fifty women staying with us over the week we were open.  Some of them accessed the advice services on offer and will now be in some sort of accomodation.  Others will be back on the streets, or to whichever situation they left behind.  It's not a comfortable thought, and a particularly difficult one for the general volunteers, who have often spent hours getting to know these women, to digest.  It's easy to wonder how much of a difference the week has made. 

But of course, it does make a difference.  I try and hold onto the thought that, thanks to Crisis, these fifty women had a Christmas.  For a week they had a warm bed, hot showers, good meals, and the company of people who cared about them.  They didn't have to worry quite so much.  It's not a solution, but it helps.

So that's where I've been.  It was hard work, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world.