St Paul’s 12 Days of Christmas 2024

This year, however, we want you to see the impact of your support. We want you to read first-hand how your support has helped; their stories, their journey, and the difference YOU are making to their lives; the opportunities they now have, and how their journey of recovery is going. So, over the next 12 days, we will be releasing an article each day to showcase our work and the impact. You will see case studies and quotes from those who have benefited from your support.

For many, Christmas is not the glitzy family gatherings, or the parties, or the long-lost friends coming together as we see in the adverts flooding our TV screens. For people who are experiencing homelessness, Christmas can be the loneliest, saddest, and most traumatic time of the year. For some, it will be missing family or friends where relationships have broken down, for others a cold reminder of what life is like for them now and for many, this time of year can be a trigger of past traumatic events; trauma that for most of us, is incomprehensible.

At St Paul’s we do our utmost to provide the care and support our community need. We help them build trusted relationships, rebuild connections, and move forward on their journey of recovery. For many, we are the only family they have… The St Paul’s Family.

On the 1st Day of Christmas: Kitchen Assistant Training Programme

What does self-neglect look like?

A lack of basic self-care which threatens personal health and safety. (Not eating, not washing, and neglecting medical needs). At St Pauls we run a training kitchen which prepares 3 meals a day for our residents. It’s not fancy, it is basic self-care, if we don’t have the funds we can’t run the kitchen.

This year has been marked by remarkable contributions and growth within our kitchen team, reflecting the dedication and resilience of our staff members. Sam has been a dedicated member of our kitchen team since 2022. His contributions have made him an invaluable asset.

Sam’s commitment is evident as he consistently works 10 hours, covering both morning and evening shifts. Beyond his regular duties, Sam has taken on the role of kitchen cleaning mentor, demonstrating exceptional reliability. He is always ready to step in during holidays or when a colleague is sick, showcasing his unwavering dedication to the team.

Darren has also been an essential part of our kitchen since 2022. With a 16-hour contract, Darren diligently handles the morning breakfast shift, expertly preparing fried breakfasts. In the evenings, he supports our external volunteers during the meal service, going above and beyond his assigned duties. Darren frequently works outside his scheduled hours, always willing to assist wherever he is needed, embodying a spirit of dedication and teamwork.

Soul worked in our kitchen for six months, bringing an infectious enthusiasm that significantly uplifted the atmosphere. His positive energy resonated with both volunteers and residents, especially during the evening shift, which he helped to brighten. Although Soul decided not to continue after his initial tenure, he left a lasting impression and hopes to return when he feels ready. Kayleigh was a vital part of our kitchen team until her recent departure from the hostel. Throughout her time with us, she demonstrated remarkable growth, showing incredible initiative and a strong willingness to learn. Her progress was impressive, and we are confident that she has a bright future ahead in the catering industry.

Overall, this year has highlighted the strength, commitment, and potential within our kitchen team, promising a future of continued excellence and growth.

Day 2: Counselling

Homelessness is not just a housing issue, often trauma comes first

“What happened to you?”

At St Paul’s we use trauma as the lens through which we look to understand why a person arrives at our door. In our experience, past trauma, often from childhood, is prevalent in most; these are known as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s). We recognise the damage trauma can do to the character of a person & the negative impact is has on choices they have. The lifetime prevalence of ACEs is substantially higher among homeless adults than among the general population, and ACEs exposure might be associated with prevalence of mental illness, substance misuse, and victimisation. Using the available evidence of ‘what works’ we have distilled the 3 core tasks of building psychological safety; nurturing & strengthening appropriate relationships & behaviours and connecting people to the friendships, help & support they need. This has had a demonstrable & immediate impact. By combining this with Trauma Informed Care & a Psychologically Informed Environment, the essence of the approach changes the nature of the question we ask from ‘What’s wrong with you?’ to ‘What happened to you?’ This new emphasis seeks to connect the individual’s trauma history to their current behaviour that than seeing the behaviour as a character flaw. Since April, we have delivered 314 hours of counselling, to 26 people and have been able to support partner agencies including MAGGS Day Centre, Cranstoun and Emerging Futures.

One of our clients has now moved out of the Hostel and has gained employment with Herefordshire & Worcestershire Mental Health Team. “When I started Counselling, I had no reason to think it would have such a positive impact on my life. I was extremely depressed having lost most of my stability, my home and most of my possessions and things were at breaking point. After spending many years trying to get help for myself, I thought nothing could help me.

Then I met with the Counsellor at St Pauls Hostel, and he showed me different techniques which have helped me on my road to recovery. Counselling has helped me look at my thought processes and how they were feeding my negative feelings. Counselling has helped me to take control of my thoughts and stopped them from controlling my moods and controlling things that I did or didn’t do.

This combined with new medication to help calm me down has had a wonderful impact on my life and I find myself using the tools that the Counsellor has shown me every single day. I am glad to say that they are making me able to cope with everyday life whereas before I found impossible. I have formed some good habits and managed to get rid of some old ones that were no help to my life.

I am by no means 100% but every week that goes by I am making improvements, and I know that if it wasn’t for my counselling sessions I wouldn’t be looking forward again. I would be stuck in a pit of despair and depression with no means of getting out”

Day 3: Holistic Therapy Services

We know our in-house counselling service works and is well utilised. We also recognise the ‘clinical nature’ that counselling can convey, can present a barrier to some. Funding enabled us to expand our Holistic Therapy services to include Integrated Health Coaching, promoting Inner Wellness & Health Thinking to help people understand that underneath all their discomforting thoughts lies perfect mental health.

Working with the quality and awareness of thought, to improve mental health and using the recognition of the concept of “Thought Storms” to regain peace and clarity of mind. This resource supports the individuals’ journey of recovery so that they are better able to move forwards with their lives. It has enabled us to begin expanding our services to include those living in our Resettlement properties, Housing First project as well as external referring organisations. This can be 1:2:1 or group work & includes Mindful Colouring, Creative Writing, Diabetic/Healthy Living Support and Discover & Recover – Overthinking.

Case Study: Holistic Therapist:

“When I first met ‘X’ he was suffering with anxiety and depression. He said he had very dark thoughts and was very anxious about leaving his flat. He was also very isolated and had no visitors. We started working together and over the weeks I have seen a big change in him. Through our work together, he has been able to sit with his depression and anxiety and to understand if he doesn’t focus on his thoughts, they do eventually pass through. He rarely mentions his depression and anxiety now” Client “I don’t think I am the same person you met several weeks ago. My anxiety and depression have greatly reduced, and I feel more confident. I definitely now have more good days than bad days. I am not so anxious when I leave my flat.

Day 4: Holistic Therapy Services in the community

With funding support, we have been able to expand our Holistic Therapy Services to residents in our Resettlement houses and our Housing First project as well as other external agencies. This has reduced the waiting times for low level mental health support and has enabled those who may have otherwise, slipped by wayside, access to bespoke holistic support. The style of support does not need to revisit their experiences, preventing re-traumatisation, but enables them to learn coping strategies for those who are struggling to come to terms with their pasts.

Case Study

A client in her late fifties in the external community has been suffering with chronic overthinking and anxiety. She has found it exceedingly difficult to get support and is on a waiting list for CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy). Her habit of overthinking every situation meant she was taking everything personal and was not aware that it was her thinking about the events/circumstances and not the actual circumstances, that was causing her to feel stressed and anxious. We worked together on being able to let go of her thoughts/thinking so that she could access her inner calm and peace. The first step was to increase her awareness of how she was creating stress and anxiety for herself. Once she was aware of this, she could then manage it more effectively.

On my last visit to her, she said she felt she was relaxing more and could make better decisions from a calmer state of mind. This is also helping her with her relationships.

Day 8: Housing First

Working in partnership with local districts and county councils and housing providers, St Paul’s Leads Worcester’s Housing First project; a ‘prevention stage’ homelessness service, which supports people with multiple and complex needs, that would otherwise be rough sleeping. Housing First is a continuous assessment of needs and time critical interventions often during crisis, which help to sustain tenancies and give service users a quality of life that they may not have experienced before.   ‘Housing First’ is a different model because it provides housing ‘first,’ as a matter of right. An internationally recognised, evidence-based model of housing and support for those with chronic housing, health/social care needs. The aim is to end repeat & chronic homelessness for a group of people for whom other service are ineffective and to make Worcestershire a place where all forms of homelessness are rare, brief, and non-recurrent.

It has helped 67 people since inception 3 years ago, 58% of whom have gone on to sustain tenancy, of which 3% holding those tenancies for over 2 years.

• 89% of whom have improved health and wellbeing
• 42% no longer require a high-fidelity model of support and have/are transitioning to low level support
• Social Value cost of 31.2m to the public purse
• A majority of those with offending histories and custodial sentences have stayed out of prison at a cost saving of £4.6m to the prison and judicial services

Case Study:

Male, 40’s, homeless for over 25 years, Complex mental health needs, childhood trauma & alcohol dependency. First offence aged 16 – shoplifting, escalating to criminal damage, common assaults, assault causing actual bodily harm, deception, using threatening, insulting, or abusive words or behaviour with intent and driving offences. 2011 was given an ASBO & CBO to manage behaviour; breached 35 times in a 6-year period. Custodial sentences ranging from 2 weeks to 8 months.

Aged 38-39, whilst in prison, he self-harmed and attempted suicide. The self-harm was continuing when we met and is indicative of psychological distress which has never been dealt with effectively, in part, due to his chaotic lifestyle. There had not been a significant length of time to engage with constructive and consistent support in the community, and the lengths of his custodial sentences had resulted in little opportunity for meaningful work regarding his mental health, accommodation, or alcohol rehabilitation to be addressed.

His top priority joining the project was to secure accommodation. He felt that support for his alcohol, offending and mental health could not be his priority until he was placed in accommodation.

He had trust issues and displayed an antagonistic attitude towards those in authority. However, through collaborative support with Housing First, he was able to secure his first tenancy. He is attending regular appointments with his Housing First Case Manager, GP and hospital appointments and his offending has dramatically reduced including his anti-social behaviour issues. Alcohol remains problematic; however, he is engaging with harm reduction plans which are improving his physical and mental health. It should be noted that, for the first time in his life, he is household budgeting and cooking substantial meals in the safety of his own home. It is evident that he is extremely house proud with his accommodation in excellent condition throughout.

“My support worker has been amazing supports me with everything. I love that we do random “normal” things like dog walking and then she will have me cooking steak and chicken which I have never done in my life. I have never eaten daily, now I do, previously was just a liquid diet.

She has been a constant I am so used to agencies/workers saying they will work with me and then after a couple of weeks and things become difficult, they don’t want to work with me anymore.

Not used to paying bills in jail or when homeless and I feel safe knowing she will help me with these or any letters that land on my door.

If it wasn’t for her help I would be in prison or dead. She goes above and beyond and has the patients of an angel.”

Day 9: People with lived experience

Our working model of Trauma Informed Care in a Psychologically Informed Environment encourages us to think about roles, responsibilities & rules. To this end we have developed a Peer Mentoring programme which aims to provide a transition for residents, from volunteering to paid employment as part of their journey of recovery. Roles using ‘lived experience’ of homelessness (or addiction or bereavement) are essential to engage & encourage other residents to change. Peer Mentors help staff every day & take on important tasks. They are an important part of the ‘toolbox’ to help a person’s recovery. We also work closely with Healthwatch Worcestershire & since September 2021 we have created a ‘Community Link’ to facilitate deeper & richer Healthwatch engagement. Other Peer Mentor roles include Resident’s Peer Mentor helps new residents settle into the hostel or new home, accompanying them to GP and/or other appointments.

Our Bike Maintenance Peer Mentor oversees the day to day running of our residents’ Bike Maintenance Project. Working with a professional bike mechanic, he is learning the skills required to maintain & repair bikes which in turn he teaches & supports other residents. Our Gardening Peer Mentor, maintains and develops our outside spaces, providing therapeutic safe spaces for residents. We employ a former resident as Peer Support Worker on our Housing First service, the second Peer Support worker, went onto secure work in Domiciliary Care.

This is not without its difficulties, to broadcast Peer Mentoring as simple would be disingenuous. We must work hard to listen & to explain what we can change & what we cannot, whilst retaining an authentic relationship with the people we help.  We hold monthly residents’ meetings, so the thoughts and ideas of residents are heard and acted upon. Residents are also encouraged to attend meeting with funders & other services to share their experiences. Their testimonies are hard-hitting, real & bring to life the challenges and barriers that are face daily. Their testimonies create change.

Peer Mentoring Costs the charity £1,500 per mentor per year
Are you an organisation that would like to sponsor a Peer Mentor? Are you looking for your Charity of the Year 2025? Contact Annamarie Brant, Fundraising Manager on Annamarie.brant@stpaulshostel.co.uk or donate on the link below leaving your details so we can contact you and thank you personally for your support.

Day 10: WODDAS

Wearable Overdoes Detection Device and Alert System: is a wearable device for those at risk of a fatal accidental drug overdose.

Following the completion of a proof concept in Belfast, St Paul’s has been invited to work in collaboration with Cranstoun, the County Drug and Alcohol treatment provider, Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) and Queens University Belfast (QUB) to develop technology that aims to reduce the risk of a fatal accidental drug overdose. This study aims to test whether a simple wearable device can prevent unobserved overdoses from leading to death. The device will detect a change in life signs (e.g., oxygen saturation) and send an alert to staff on shift at the Hostel who will go to that person’s room, assess the person, administer emergency care, including naloxone and call emergency services.

The aim of the pilot is to assess the effectiveness of such a device among a group of people at increased risk of overdose in a supported accommodation setting.

Our Peer Mentors have been an essential part of the planning process of this project and their engagement with residents as the pilot project roles out is vital for resident participation. Our Peer Mentors have attended planning and discussion meetings with both Trustees and Cranstoun, enabling ‘lived experience’ to be at the core of the project development and implementation.

We are delighted that this pilot project will begin soon. To read more, please see here.

Day 11: Residents’ Points Reward Scheme

Residents are encouraged to do purposeful things with their time and keep themselves occupied. To this end and to encourage activity, we operate a points-based reward scheme. The scheme provides frequent opportunities for residents to undertake chores and other light work for the benefit of the hostel community in return for an incentive. The scheme has been developed with the cooperation of our local Job Centre and is not at odds with rules regulating state benefits.

The scheme is consistent with our vision and mission in that it a) Encourages self-help b) Benefits the community and it is c) Strength-based approach (what people can do; not what they cannot). Points are awarded for various tasks, such as meaningful activities, helping with domestic duties, helping with catering duties; maintaining and carrying out essential work in our Kitchen Garden and other external social areas; these also have therapeutic benefits. Points have a monetary value (£1 per point) although not exchanged for cash they can be exchanged for rewards such as toiletries, clothes, or off set against rent arrears etc.

Day 12: Messages of thanks

Christmas Message from Philip Fowler, Chair of Trustees
“On behalf of the Trustees, Team and Residents of St Paul’s I would like to wish everyone a very happy Christmas time and a great new year. My new year wish for St Paul’s is to see even more local people support the challenging yet rewarding work that St Paul’s does every day of the year to help people live through homelessness.”

Christmas Message from Erica Burlace, Chief Executive Officer
“My message is a simple one. I want to take the opportunity to really thank those that have supported, and continue to support St Pauls, in whatever guise, we literally could not operate without you. As we look to 2025, I am excited to reinvigorate existing relationships and seek out new ones, leading St Pauls to better meet the needs of those that need us most. We will work with our partners to align our efforts to help stop homelessness in our city and the surrounding districts.

The community at St Pauls is one I feel very privileged to be a part of, it’s a unique and harmonious place, shared by individuals, from our own doorstep. There is an incredible team of people working with the sole aim of providing a safe, secure, and supported space to help people through homelessness to better lives, without loneliness, with independence, with improved health and with some certainty.”

We want to thank you all for your support, with particular thanks to

• Those who have volunteered their time or joined us a Relief Staff
• All our Regular Donors who give a regular donation
• All who have donated In Memory of a loved one, or whose loved one remembered us in their Will
• All those who have raised money through their own events or responded to our appeals
• For the donations that have enabled us to purchase new bedding for each resident, or a Welcome Pack of essential items
• All who have supported us this Christmas by helping us ensure that all our residents received a Christmas Gift, Food Hamper
• Our Charity of the Year sponsor for 2024, CDP Printing
• All our Funders and Stakeholders, including The Eveson Trust, The National Lottery Community Fund, Garfield Western, The Bransford Trust, The Mary Hill Trust and many others.

Each and every one on of you, have made a difference to someone’s life, you have given them hope when they had none, and you have given them back their self-worth! Thank you!

What’s planned for 2025?

Well, there’s a lot of planning already happening for events in 2025 which will include the Big Worcester Sleep Out in April, the annual Big Worcester Quiz in the Summer and the Big Worcester Christmas Quiz in December and much more! Keep an eye on our social media platforms or sign up to our eNewsletter and keep up to date with everything St Paul’s. You can sign up to our newsletter here, it is completely free of charge, and you can unsubscribe at any time  St Paul’s Hostel • News

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.