Corporate Support at Christmas
How your company can get involved with The Connection at St Martin’s this Christmas
The Connection at St Martin’s will provide the only service for homeless people in Westminster this Christmas. We anticipate that there will be even more of a demand for our services this year.
How your company can support homeless people this Christmas
On Christmas Day some of the most disadvantaged people in the UK will come to our centre for Christmas dinner, games, advice and company, including Joan*
Joan* suffers from depression. She left her husband and grown children and came to London with no money or possessions. Our outreach workers found her sleeping in a shop doorway on The Strand. Joan is 68 years old. She had been sleeping rough in different areas for some time and at first our workers couldn’t tell whether she was a man or a woman because she was in such a poor state.
We offered Joan immediate shelter in our night centre but she was resistant to help at first. Our workers eventually persuaded her to come to our centre, where she was able to have a hot shower and eat a nutritious meal. She had no form of identification so we applied for a copy birth certificate for her and arranged for her to draw her pension.
We gave Joan an open referral to our night centre so that she had a safe, warm place to sleep every night until we found suitable accommodation. Two weeks ago she accepted a place at a specialist hostel. Our worker will continue to visit her and we hope to be able to put her back in touch with her family and friends once she is ready. Joan will be given a warm welcome at our centre on Christmas Day.
*Name has been changed
Here is how you can help:
1. Christmas presents for clients
We encourage our corporate partners to ask their staff to donate individually wrapped gifts which can be given to our clients on Christmas Day. Nearer the time we can send you a client wish list, which tends to be for items between £5-£10 such as clothing or toiletries. The presents should be delivered to our day centre and they will be given to our clients on Christmas Day. Our staff will ensure that photos are taken so that your employees can see the outcome of their generosity. We would be grateful if each present can include the following items, if possible:
- Toiletries
- Socks or Hat or Scarf
- Chocolate or a sweet treat
- Plus a fun / thoughtful gift of your choice.
The presents should be wrapped, labelled whether it is for a man or a woman (we need mostly male presents) and given to the appointed person in your organisation.
2. Team Challenge
Our medium-stay housing project, St Martin’s House in Balham, offers tenancies to former rough sleepers, many of whom have experienced trauma, mental health and/or substance misuse issues. Most of the tenants will be without friends or family this Christmas and we would like to ensure that their Christmas will be as enjoyable as possible. We are asking ONE company team to rise to the challenge of providing a hamper for each of the 16 male tenants at St Martin’s House this Christmas.
The team will be required to:
- Raise the funds required to cover the cost of the hampers through a fundraising event or their powers of persuasion!
- Buy the contents of the hampers, including useful tins of food, dried fruit, nuts (non-perishables), more luxurious items such as nice jams, boxes of chocolates / biscuits, Christmas items eg. Christmas pudding, mince pies etc Perhaps a present eg. Male toiletry set, socks, jumper
- Put the hampers together in wicker baskets or nice boxes
- Arrange for the hampers to be delivered to St Martin’s House in Balham by 19th Dec.
If the challenge is undertaken during company time it is estimated that it will take 1 day to fundraise (including preparation) and ½ day to buy the contents of the hampers, assemble them and arrange for delivery. We can also arrange for the team to be toured around our day centre in Trafalgar Square to see how they will be directly helping homeless people this Christmas.
3. Buying our Christmas cards or making a donation in lieu
If your company sends Christmas Cards to clients or customers you could buy The Connection at St Martin’s Christmas cards and have these printed to publicise your company’s partnership with our charity. This is a great opportunity to raise awareness of your support for our work. Alternatively you might choose to directly donate the money that you would have spent on purchasing and sending Christmas cards to us, and then send an electronic Christmas card or email to let your clients or customers know this.
For further details about any of these activities please contact Penny Roberts, Corporate & Major Donor Fundraiser, on 020 7766 5555 or Email: penny.roberts@cstm.org.uk