Last night it was myself, Rosie, Tom and Darren on outreach. We all met at 8.30 pm in Bournemouth where I gave the guys a de brief about outreach. Basically went over what the deal with outreach is, who they would see, what would go on, our guidelines and ethics. I was half way through chatting about outreach when our first homeless guy approached us. So the guys were now thrown in, de brief only halfway through !
Our first guy needed trainers and a coat. He took his coffee, 3 sugars, and hot meal while Rosie found him some trainers and a coat. He tried on a few coats and made a joke about how they weren't really his 'style' and he'd look silly. He eventually settled on a nice warm coat and a pair of almost new trainers. His trainers were soaking wet and falling apart so he put his old shoes in the bin.
This outreach was starting to turn out like last summers outreach. Last summer I used to get off the bus and a load of homeless would meet me from the bus for food before Id head up town and feed the rest.
With one guy stopping us in the street, we soon had 3 or 4 guys around us. We fed all the guys. Rachel had cooked spaghetti , we had coffee, tea, hot chocolate, energy drinks, chocolate, crisps, sandwiches, oat bars AND bananas. We had a tonne of stuff for everyone. All the guys chose a few items of clothes and one guy found some trainers.
One man was pretty upset that there were no shoes left for him. Hes a size 9 / 10. All the guys seem to be that size and we have had a lot of requests for 9/10 size shoes, so if you have any, we'll have them please.
We moved on just round the corner and fed two more guys we know. One guy had recently been attacked from behind and had a black eye. We chatted for a while about his current problems. While we were chatting a young girl approached asking for a hot drink. She looked heavily pregnant but I didn't want to ask. Who knows maybe she was just a bit chunky ;) I recognized her before she took her hood down but I couldn't think of her name. We chatted for a while and she went on to say she was pregnant. I asked her what help she was getting and she said none. She said she was homeless but stayed at a friends house down the road sometimes. To be honest, I don't believe that shes getting no help. The local agencies would not leave a girl pregnant on the streets without any help. Sadly pregnant or not, its down to the individual to accept the help.
We moved on up the street. We approached one young man in a doorway who was new to Bournemouth. We gave him some food, drinks, etc and had a little chat. He had only just arrived in Bournemouth but was originally from Dorset.
We carried on through Bournemouth and saw another local guy we know. We gave him some hot food and drinks and a few t shirts and warm jogging bottoms. He was really grateful and as friendly as always. While feeding him another man stopped us briefly to grab some food then we moved on.
We carried on walking and saw another person we have known well over a year. We chatted about their partner, who is now out of hospital, and about them moving into a flat and saving money up for a deposit. Things seemed very positive, the partner was getting healthier and things were looking up. The partner had an infection on the spine about a month ago and has been in hospital ever since and at first we were unsure if they'd ever walk again.
We were at our half way point pit stop. This is where we always buy a drink / snack. Non alcoholic I may add. The pregnant girl was close to us and someone shouted her name. As soon as I heard her name I knew who she was. I asked her if she was the girl who could sing, she laughed nervously and joked saying who's been talking about me. I reminded her how last year she had sang at one of my soup kitchens when I wasn't there and I had heard how good she was. She sang their and then for us. I can speak for all of us when I say we were blown away. This girl had damn talent. She sang Hero, Mariah Carey. When she finished my jaw was still hitting the ground. She went on to say that the songs she sings are pretty deep and filled with emotion due to her serious rough up bringing. She then sang Family Portrait, Pink.
Anyone who knows that song, will know how emotional it must be to a young girl who had a rough upbringing. Shes having a boy and shes due in 6 weeks, she doesn't yet have anything. I will speak to her in more detail when I next see her, but without saying too much about her personal situation, we are not sure what will happen.
We carried on walking through Bournemouth all the way up to Landsdown handing out more food and hot drinks.
We saw one guy who I haven't seen for ages. He was sat down reading a book. I crouched down and asked him what he was reading. He was reading a book, ( he didn't tell me the name but showed me a few photos inside the book!) about a man back in the 60's who was an alcoholic. He had hit rock bottom, was on the streets, had been stabbed various times, he would drink white spirit because it had alcohol in. He managed to turn his life around and now runs 4 rehab centers. Hes not textbook, he knows what hes doing. The lovely man we were chatting with told me it had taken him almost a month to read this book. Why ? Because he was teaching himself to read. He thought now he'd taught himself to read, he could do anything.
We saw a few more people then outreach was over for another week.
Thanks so much to Darren and Tom for helping myself and Rosie this week.
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