It’s difficult not to get a little bit excited as we get closer to Christmas.
The sense of excitement and anticipation in the faces of children. The presents under the tree. The awkward office parties. Gatherings and celebrations bringing friends and family together.
But while many of us are enjoying the run up to Christmas Day, charities are busy working to help make sure that families facing homelessness are comfortable and safe.
Shelter have some sobering statistics suggesting that 1 in every 100 children will wake up homeless this Christmas. And on any given night, it’s estimated that thousands of people are rough sleeping across the UK.
Two charities that are working hard to help people navigate homelessness this Christmas are Help The Homeless Leicester and Crisis.
Supporting crisis and help the homeless leicester
Every year, Crisis at Christmas provides warmth, shelter and food for people facing homelessness at this time of year across the UK.
And on a more local level, Help The Homeless Leicester provides people who need it with food, clothing and toiletries all year round. And this year they have decided to open their doors to those in need over Christmas – offering a selection of warm meals, mince pies and hot chocolate.
With the season of giving upon us, we wanted to do our part to help both charities. Crisis got in touch with us here at Everything Community and asked if we could help with any surplus items. We immediately got in contact with our Fulfilment Manager, Stacey North, to see if we had any items that would have a meaningful impact on the lives of people who use their services.
Help The Homeless, helped us understand that warm gloves were in high demand during the cold winter months. So we donated a generous number of gloves from our branded stock.
Our conversations with Crisis touched on quite a few different items, and we agreed to donate gloves to help keep hands warm, with additional thermo travel mugs to help keep drinks warm during the cold nights. We also donated water bottles to help people stay hydrated.
One of the other suggestions from Crisis was to provide accessories to help the people who used their services keep in touch with their loved ones and maintain access to emergency contacts over Christmas. We loved this idea, and we provided Crisis with a batch of mobile phone cases to help protect mobile devices. A selection of mobile speakers were also part of our donation, designed to help guests enjoy music and a sense of togetherness over the Christmas period.
After we delivered out donations, we received a really warm message of thanks from both charities. We hope that our donations were well received by the people who used them, and that they helped to make a difficult time of year just a little bit easier.
more about crisis
Crisis is a national charity that is dedicated to providing support and services to homeless people across the UK.
Formed in 1967, the charity has successfully helped tens of thousands of people out of homelessness over the last 55 years.
Every Christmas, Crisis opens their doors to people who need warmth, food, access to healthcare and company.
Find out more about Crisis at https://www.crisis.org.uk/ and their Christmas campaign at https://www.crisis.org.uk/crisis-at-christmas/.
more about help the homeless
Help the Homeless Leicester was founded in 2014, and actually started by offering clothing from the boot of a car to help provide warmth and support for the homeless people of Leicester.
In 2018, the organisation became a registered charity and since this date is has regularly and consistently broadened its reach and capabilities to support people in need in our local area.
There are a number of different projects that are managed across the charity – most of them helping to provide food, clothing, toiletries and temporary accommodation for those who need it.
Looking to find out more about Help The Homeless Leicester? Just visit https://www.hthleicester.co.uk/
