As there is lots of interest in Light Project Peterborough, the homeless project I have been volunteering at a few nights a week, I thought I would share some details of what we have been up to and the latest ‘official update’ from Sue Hemsby, the organiser of Light Project Peterborough. This is the second update I have shared, the first update can be found here;

This update is correct as of 19th January;

 

  • 36 different guests have stayed one night or more
  • 204 beds provided
  • 3 guests have moved into private rented sector, 1 more expected to move w/c 23rd January.
  • 7 guests have moved into New Haven
  • 2 guests have moved back to area they have a local connection
  • 5 guests were deemed too high risk for us and referred into SWEP
  • 4 guests have linked back with their families

On Wednesday we had a visit from Cllr Irene Walsh & Cllr Bella Saltmarsh who wanted to come and see first hand how the project is serving the community as there has been lots of negative press about homelessness in general over the Christmas period.   They were very impressed and Cllr Walsh is keen to continue the conversation with us on how else we may be able to serve.

Tuesday this week we had a hair dressers come to serve our guests at Dogsthorpe – this went down really well and we hope it will happen again before the end of the project.

I have also been speaking to a few of my own contacts to see how they can help, Ajay of AJ Snacks Arnie produces Indian snacks and food and wants to bless the project by providing for the meal one evening, while Dan of Creative Photography and Shashi of Peterborough Prison will also be meeting and helping one of the guests (who now has accommodation) with has hopes of working in photography in the future.

Sue added to the email a request for donations, I have included her message and the link to donate if you would like to;

We are trying to encourage people who believe in what we are doing to consider making a small monthly donation to support our work. Obtaining grant funding gets harder and harder each year.   We already have a few people who support us monthly specifically for the Winter Night Shelter and this is wonderful, however if we could get 100 people to donate just £3 a month this would mean that in 12 months we would have raised 50% of what it costs to run this project each winter. So if you do feel able to support in any way please donate here  – thank you.

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If you think there is a way you can help with this project please do not hesitate to contact me via [email protected]