Booth Centre

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  • Home
  • About
    • About the Booth Centre
    • Our vision, mission and values
    • Contact
    • Governance and annual reports
    • Our trustees
  • News
  • What we do
    • Need support? How we can help
    • Support & Information
    • Cafe & Wellbeing Centre
    • Employment & Skills
    • Arts
  • Our Approach
    • Co-production
    • Resources and events
    • Manchester Homelessness Partnership
  • Get Involved
    • Start fundraising >
      • 5k May
      • Great Manchester Run
    • Volunteer
    • In your workplace
    • Jobs
  • Donate
    • Donate items

Severe Cold Weather hub for Manchester

27/1/2021

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Picture
Shops, 24 hour fast food restaurants, libraries can all provide shelter from extreme weather for people who rough sleep. It's not a dignified thing to be forced into but it can be life-saving. This isn't an option this winter which is why the response from Manchester City Council and partners when the temperature falls to 0 has never been more critical. Day centres and other support services for people affected by homelessness have also been closed or on restricted opening meaning getting people into accommodation is so important.

At the Booth Centre we operate the daytime cold weather hub for Manchester. We have all weather gazebos and outside heaters as well as being able to safely seat 12 people downstairs in our cafe space and 10 people upstairs in our Skills and Employment space

Christmas Eve was the first activation of a cold weather response this winter, this involves Manchester City Council and charity partners working together to get as many people sleeping rough inside as possible. A total of 88 people were accommodated from the Booth Centre hub over the Christmas period. We provided people with phones and sent them information via a free text messaging service. And our kitchen has been producing over 50 food bags a day for people in hotels which don't provide meals.

With severe weather continuing into January we have been able to get more people into emergency accommodation. Consequently, the number of people sleeping rough in Manchester have fallen dramatically and we're now all working together to help keep these people inside, and get them the support and long-term homes that they need.



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Booth Centre’s third redesign

22/1/2021

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The Booth Centre provides an essential service for people who are homeless. By remaining open we not only protect our community but help to reduce the chance of transmission in the city. With this in mind we have once again adapted our service to give us the best chance of being able to safely remain open to support people, whilst the threat from the new variant of Covid is so severe.

From Monday 11
th January we divided our service into two bubbles. Staff, volunteers and people accessing the Centre are assigned to one bubble and will now stay in that bubble until we feel it is safe to relax these measures. We have split the building to accommodate the two bubbles. To access the service people should continue to phone 0161 835 2499 or to come to reception.

Bubble 1: Upstairs

This includes: 

  • Pathways into employment; we now run 3 sessions a week to help people find work, gain qualifications and improve their digital literacy. 
  • Two socially distanced wellbeing activities of art and drama. 
  • Support groups will continue - for example our Women's Group and Resettlement Group. 
  • Health, welfare and accommodation support will be provided for the people attending these sessions. 
  • Brews, breakfast and lunch will be provided for everyone booked in to attend. 

Bubble 2: Downstairs
This will include: 

  • The Severe Cold Weather Hub for the city; getting people into emergency accommodation when the temperature drops below zero. 
  • Supporting people with reconnections to the UK and the EU; if people have a home they can safely return to we will help them to reconnect. 
  • Applying for settled status for EU nationals. 
  • Signposting to essential services. 
  • Providing drinks and hot meals for people attending the Centre and providing food bags for people in emergency cold weather provision hotels. 

We are continuing to support people who do not attend the Centre by: 
  • Providing practical support for people actively seeking work and devices for them to stay connected. 
  • Sending out activity packs including arts materials and resources. We know from the first lockdown how valuable these were in supporting people in temporary accommodation with their mental health. Helping people find a purpose and creative outlet. 
  • Supporting people to find new tenancies using online viewings. 
  • Providing a telephone and text support service. 
 
How you can help:

  • Gift practical items from our Amazon wishlist here or see our needed items page here 
  • Donate to support our service here   
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Open Letter To Robert Jenrick MP and The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

7/1/2021

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We write on behalf of Manchester Homelessness Partnership organisations to ask you to reconsider your decision not to fund essential accommodation for people who are experiencing homelessness or sleeping on the streets during this third national lockdown. We appreciate the funding given to date has been critical to addressing the risks to this population of the pandemic but it is simply not enough now that a third lockdown is in place for at least the next 8 weeks.

Yesterday the House of Commons voted to pass this lockdown into law, making it unlawful for people to leave their homes without good reason. The law is worded so that it excludes people who are experiencing homelessness, in effect making it lawful for them to remain outside during one of the most acute stages of this pandemic.

With over 1,000 deaths yesterday and the number of cases increasing daily, we ask for this emergency funding so that we can continue to keep people safe during this unpredictable time.

Because these are people we are supporting; they deserve the same chance as everyone else to survive this virus. The chances are stacked against them with no safe place of their own and the difficulty of engaging with health services with no phone or internet.

We’re asking for additional funding to keep people in accommodation throughout this lockdown so that we as a partnership can work with them as we did during ‘Everyone In’, where we accommodated over 450 people and helped 270 to move off the streets to a new home.

Please don’t let the people we support become the daily statistics we see in the media. Please reverse your decision on the basis of humanitarian aid.


Amanda Croome – The Booth Centre
Yvonne Hope – Barnabus
Jo Walby – The Mustard Tree
Ros Holland – The Boaz Trust
Helen Brown – On The Out
Stephanie Moore & Rebecca Elliot – Reach Out to the Community
Joe Lomas – Centrepoint
Hendrix & Risha Lancaster – Coffee4Craig
Liz Norris - Shelter
Judith Vickers – Lifeshare
Annie Emery – MASH
Fergal McCullough – The Men’s Room
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BOOTH CENTRE, EDWARD HOLT HOUSE, PIMBLETT STREET, MANCHESTER M3 1FU   |   THE BOOTH CENTRE IS A REGISTERED CHARITY IN ENGLAND AND WALES (1062674)
TELEPHONE: 0161 835 2499   |   EMAIL: INFO@BOOTHCENTRE.ORG.UK    
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