St Paul’s Twelve Days of Christmas 2023
We were delighted to host our Open Days this year and welcome many of our supporters to see first-hand the impact of their support and the opportunity to meet and chat with residents and see some of the projects that we have developed.
This year we were honoured to welcome one of our Founders, Rev’d Frank Hillebrand who gave a moving, powerful and thought-provoking insight into the early days of St Paul’s. It was lovely to see some of our residents take part in the Open Day, sitting amongst our visitors as they listened to a presentation about the hostel, how it started, why we do what we do and how we do it. This was followed by a tour and further opportunity to talk to residents.
If you would like to register your interest in being invited to one of our 2024 events, please contact our Fundraising Manager annamarie.brant@stpaulshostel.co.uk
It was with immense pride that we hosted an awards ceremony at which not only was St Paul’s recognised but also five residents, former residents, a volunteer, and Bailey the Dog!
St Paul’s Hostel – Frances Martin, Vice Chair of St Paul’s received the High Sheriff Award on behalf of the charity. This award recognised the exceptional work of St Paul’s Hostel Worcester during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Carl – Carl volunteered to be the maintenance person at St Paul’s hostel last summer and his dedication has made a significant difference to the residents of St Paul’s Hostel.
Jamie & Bailey, the dog! – This award recognises the unique contribution of our volunteer gardener, Jamie Dillon, and his faithful companion Bailey the dog. Jamie has been instrumental in maintaining the gardens to an extremely high standard. His collection of new plants has improved the gardens, and he has created his own mark.
Nick – This award recognises Nick for his remarkable journey of resilience through adversity. He overcame significant challenges in his life, but he never gave up and always wanted to have a positive impact on the community.
Sam – Sam is a dedicated and very hard-working Kitchen Assistant who goes the extra mile in everything he does. Starting out in the unglamorous dish washing role, Sam applied for and was successful in securing one of the two paid Kitchen Assistant roles.
Ryan – Ryan’s journey from recovery from addiction to employment on the Housing First service is an outstanding achievement and worthy of recognition by this award.
You can read more about Ryan’s journey in a powerful interview with Ryan and Worcester News journalist, James Connell How ex-addict climbed ladder out of drugs hell to help others | Worcester News
We were delighted with our 5 Star Food Hygiene rating again this year. This is testimony to the hard work and dedication of our Catering Staff, residents, and volunteers.
As well as providing our residents with homecooked meals, our Kitchen plays a vital role in teaching our residents the importance of eating well to support their recovery and their progression back into living alone. It gives residents the opportunity to secure employment either with us or the experience they require to gain employment or placements in other organisations.
The kitchen and dining room are a hive of activity, a place where relationships and trust are built, an essential element of recovery for those who have experienced past trauma.
This program is not funded by statutory provision. It depends solely on the support from Funders and donations. We thank organisations such as The National Lottery Community Fund, Nationwide Community Fund, The Roger & Douglas Turner Charitable Trust, and others for their current and past support.
An incredibly special & moving day at the hostel as we officially opened The Robin Sykes Memorial Garden, dedicated to one of our Founders and long-standing Trustee, Robin Sykes. In the presence of his widow, Sue and children Nick & Ross, we feel privileged to have worked with Robin having been instrumental in shaping the charity from 1977
Our residents got into the spirit of things with a BBQ. The weather was amazing, and everyone had a wonderful day. All the planning, food and service is done by our Chef & Catering Manager Jo Graysmark, volunteers, and residents Kitchen Assistant Trainees as part of our Kitchen Assistant Training programme.
Our Chief Executive, Jonathan Sutton, and Jo herself are both veterans of the Army and Royal Air Force. We salute you & thank you both for your service. These social activities are essential in building confidence, skills and trusted relationships and supports our residents on their journey of recovery.
Jo said ” Such a brilliant turn out for our Armed Forces Day. Stewart & Khanyi both volunteered their time and helped tremendously. It was a fun atmosphere with lots of appreciation”
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St Paul’s has been delivering Trauma Informed Care for over 7 years and are delighted that the Government now recognises the impact of this delivery model. They have recently released a Working definition of trauma-informed practice, (Working definition of trauma-informed practice – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)), which within it, refers to ‘preventing re-traumatisation’ It states that ‘re-traumatisation is generally triggered by reminders of previous trauma which may or may not be potentially traumatic in themselves’ In delivering our programme of Therapeutic Services and different approaches to dealing with trauma, we are able to ensure access to provide bespoke interventions in response to the individuals need.
Our current Counselling & Mindfulness services have benefitted and continues to benefit a large number of our residents, but we are mindful that this approach is not suited to everyone. One size does not fit all. This in mind, and utilising the skills of our Holistic Coach, we developed our offer to ensure that everyone can access a service that is beneficial to them and aids their recovery.
The additional services include Hypnotherapy; Wellness sessions; Anger Management/Stress Management; Emotional Resilience Group; Mindfulness for Addictions Group; Self-Belief & Confidence lessons; Creative Writing groups and a Ladies Group. This development is as a direct result of our Holistic Coach speaking with residents during her Mindfulness sessions and through resident and staff consultation, to better understand their needs in order that they can be adequately supported on their individual journey of recovery. To this end and with funding from Worcester County Council Public Health she led a pilot of new Therapeutic services for 5 hours per week. Feedback has been extremely positive, and attendance has been excellent, with an expressed need from residents to provide more of these services. To this end and based on the outcome of the pilot, the expansion of this service to residents in our resettlement houses, Housing First participants and external organisations is already proving successful.
Our Mindfulness & Holistic Coach works with the quality and awareness of Thought to improve mental health
Our new Potting Shed was generously Funded by Hewett Recruitment. The funds were raised during our 2022 ‘Charity of the Year’ partnership.
This is a fantastic addition to our range of services, providing a safe and nurturing environment for residents to engage in therapeutic horticulture activities.
Jonathan Sutton, CEO of St Paul’s Hostel commented “I am chuffed to bits because this generous donation, from the Hewett team, caps off the renovation of all our external community gardens. Residents use the kitchen garden to nurture their green thumbs, find a quite space and cultivate their edible passions. We are grateful to Ben, Laura, and the entire Hewett team for their help over the past year”.
Laura Hewett and Ben Mannion, owners of Hewett Recruitment, and representatives of St Paul’s Hostel were present to cut the ribbon and take a look around the potting shed and garden space.
“We really enjoyed working with Jonathan and his team last year across a wide range of initiatives,” said Laura. Ben added “St Paul’s provides such important services to the local community, and we are delighted that some of the money we raised was able to go towards something tangible that will benefit the residents.”
Thank you to everyone that came along and supported the first Big Worcester Quiz. This event was organised by St Paul’s Hostel Worcester Worcester Warriors Foundation Maggs Day Centre and ha kickstarted our fundraising campaign for the The Big Worcester Sleep Out Special thanks to all the staff The Alma for your hospitality and support and to Debbie Morris, Vice Chair at St Paul’s Hostel Worcester for preparing a brilliant 10 round quiz and being a brilliant Quiz Master. Such a fabulous night. Congratulations to the team from Maggs Day Centre who came first and a HUGE congratulations to the team of residents ‘St Paul’s Massive’ who came 5th overall.
Look out for more news on the Quiz Night and news about The Big Worcester Sleep Out
All funds raised at this event will go towards the overall fundraising target of The Big Worcester Sleep Out. Thank you so much for your support
Look out for details of the Big Worcester Quiz 2024 coming soon!!!!
Everyone at St Paul’s would like to say a HUGE THANK YOU & Congratulations to Louise Bickley for the outstanding achievement of completing the London Marathon.
This is the 2nd event that Louise has done in aid of St Paul’s, and we are so very grateful to her.
This is what Louise said about her day:
“Here is me with my London Marathon medal. Such a great event to be part of. The crowd was incredible the whole way round. So happy to say I ran the whole way too.
It was such a stressful start to the day. I was too nervous to eat much breakfast, delays on the packed train to the start meant I missed my wave starting and my kit lorry had already left while I was queuing for the loo in the pouring rain! I started late right at the back but once I got going the euphoria of being part of the London marathon took over. Running over Tower bridge was a particularly special moment and one I will never forget. Music and bands the whole way, deafening cheers and I’m so glad I had my name printed on my St Pauls top. Not a mile went by without a motivating cheer of ‘Go Louise’ ‘You can do this Louise’ ‘You’ve got this Louise’ and my absolute favourite ‘You are kicking ass Louise’!!
Definitely the best and only marathon to be a part of and so proud again to run for St Pauls.”
2023 Saw the Sleep Out in a new venue. We would like to thank everyone at Worcestershire County Cricket Club for being such fabulous hosts and for everyone who came along and supported this event.
As always, this event prompts a lot of conversation, and this year was no different. In total we raised almost £9,000 which will go directly to help people who are experiencing homelessness.
Last but by no means least, we were delighted to have been awarded grant funding from the National Lottery Community Fund!
On July 25th of this year, we were overjoyed to announce that we had been awarded funding from the National Lottery Community Fund., the largest funder of community activity in the UK.
The grant award of £480,656 over the next 5 years helps us to continue to support people who are experiencing homelessness in our communities.
Although the funding does not cover all our expected costs, this funding helps us to secure essential roles and expand service delivery to enable us to a) continue to deliver the trauma informed elements of our work and b) build on the successes to date and further develop the support and services that enable our beneficiaries to recover.
Our overall aim is to ‘make Worcestershire a place where all forms of homelessness are rare, brief and non-recurrent.’
Employing specialist skills and delivering bespoke interventions, we are able to give people experiencing homelessness the opportunities and support they need to recover. Without this specialist provision, we are simply a revolving door of homelessness, and we would be unable to provide the support required to enable recovery and reintegration of beneficiaries back into the community from which they have become isolated.
This grant award, although hugely beneficial to our annual fundraising targets, does not allow us to rest on our laurels! We still need to raise the remainder of our funding gap! So please, any support you can give to our fundraising campaigns, donations, Regular Giving or organising a fundraising event, we would be, as always so incredibly grateful.
Read more about this award in this article in the Worcester News
National Lottery funding will help St Paul’s Hostel for next 5 years | Worcester News