Help to keep warm and safe
As a charity we recently visited The Old Fire Station, a local charity supporting those in need in their local community in many different ways. We met with Fran, who runs the charity, and Anne-Marie, who is the Acts 435 Advocate.
When we visited it was a very cold Friday afternoon and Anne-Marie told us about the recent requests she has been posting for individuals, such as Paul*, who were in desperate need of warmth.
Paul is a disabled man who is living by himself and benefits are his only source income. He was struggling to stay warm in the cold weather because heating his home was too expensive. Paul has also found that the cold makes movement more and more difficult and painful, which was preventing him from being able to move and walk properly. He was using a hot water bottle and placing it around his body to stay warm, but as you can imagine, that wasn't a practical solution.
Anne-Marie then went on to say how she met Paul, through The Old Fire Station, and was able to help meet his need of warmth:
"So I first met Paul at a community shop, run in The Old Fire Station, called Clothing Rebellion that was set up by myself and a group of other ladies in the local community, who all volunteered our time to set it up and run it. And through that, we got to meet a lot of people, I would speak to several people who were coming to the shop, and they were people that needed help. The shop had items for sale that were three items for £1 for clothing and food.
Paul was one of the people who would come to get a little bit of shopping and also just sit and chat. We'd make sure we had time for the people that came and every so often he'd have something that he needed help with.
Whether it was how to get something to work on his phone or just someone to talk to and like I said, we made time, we made sure we had time for those that needed it. Which I think helped bring people back, because you don't get that everywhere, you can go to places and you're just in and out, you do what you need to do and people don't have time to stop and talk to you and just keep you company. Even though we were busy we still made time.
So, Paul would come and he would sit and chat and we'd do our best to help with whatever we could. And then the shop closed down, sadly, about a year ago.
Now Paul still comes back and sees us at The Fire Station. And That's how I found out about him struggling with the weather right now and how staying warm is a struggle for him this winter. Obviously, I wanted to help in whichever way I could. And I was able to do that because I'm an Acts 435 Advocate.
I was able to post about needing funding for a heated blanket [onto the Acts 435 website]. And the donors helped with that funding. We managed to get him the heated blanket, and it made a big difference."
"It's meant that he can stay warm without worrying about high heating bills and without worrying about filling up a hot water bottle that's only going to warm up one small area at a time. It's safer for him as well."
The Old Fire Station is also a registered Warm Welcome Space that provides a warm welcome for anyone. Through also partnering with Acts 435 they're able to crowdfund for the small specific needs of individuals that access their space daily, with items such as a heated blanket or washing machine.
*name changed for anonymity