Our President, Sarah, welcomed members and visitors to the meeting and thanked all who had made the cream tea the previous month such a success. The occasion had raised a considerable sum to enable us to boost our funds and send a donation to BOAZ, the local charity nominated by us on this occasion. Everyone had also had a very jolly time.
Sarah then introduced our speaker, Nicci Roberts, who gave us an in depth insight into the wide ranging and very worthwhile work done by the Winchester Beacon.
This Charity was founded in 1988 as Winchester Churches Nightshelter and initially used vacant buildings in the city to provide support for those experiencing homelessness. Over a period of time, the Charity acquired permanent premises and now supports twenty two people over its four sites. It is open twenty four hours a day and is manned by both paid staff and volunteers.
More recently its name has been changed to The Winchester Beacon as this was considered more in keeping with the work it was doing in giving homeless people hope and support to rebuild their lives. To this end, apart from providing a secure and comfy environment, the Beacon supports residents in finding work and arranges medical and dental help, counselling services and hairdressing to name but a few. Residents are encouraged to learn new skills and use the Charity as a base to return to the kind of life they had before they became homeless. Help is also provided when residents move into their own accommodation both materially in the form of white goods, bedding, etc. and keeping in touch.
Although the Charity is supported by Local Authority and Central Government Funding as well as Housing Benefit, it relies heavily on charitable donations. Some of these are as a result of fundraising initiatives but many are from individual donations of food or domestic goods.
We shall have our own opportunity to support the Beacon when we celebrate harvest in the Village and donations of food and cleaning materials are collected at the Parish Church.
Louise ( Tel: 389 364) is also looking for more volunteers to help prepare meals for the Beacon.
Linda thanked Nicci for her very thoughtful presentation which we had all found really informative.
Our next meeting is on Wednesday 9th October when Sandie Pepperell will tell us about the work of The Royal British Legion. This is another open meeting and all, including men, are very welcome.
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