WISH:The Christmas Roof 2001

	The Christmas Roof 2001
West London Initiative on Single Homelessness

Each year, WISH operates a Christmas Roof which provides 24 hour accommodation and services for homeless
people over the Christmas period. The Roof provides our guests with an opportunity to enjoy the companionship of other guests and volunteers in a welcoming and relaxed environment.
You can read about the planning and setting up needed before we open as well as a typical day during the week that we are open on the Roof page.

WISH's Christmas Roof this year was held in the same place as last year's, in the Wilson & Kyle building,
81/87 High Street,
Brentford, Middlesex.
and was again kindly lent to us by STRATAL LTD care of Jansons & Partners.
Luckily the windows were still boarded up from last year and the dental and first aid rooms were mostly in place but vandals had broken all the doors and fixing these or making new ones was a top prority.
There was still a good deal of cleaning and painting required, despite the fact that the film company which followed us last year had decorated the walls with ocean scenes.

We had some major problems to overcome. For instance, the electricity cables had been removed as far back as the substation and we were originally told they could not be restored until mid-January! But inspired persuasion on our part and the willingness of London Electricity staff to do the work outside normal hours resulted in power being restored in a few days. We also managed to negotiate to have some large lorries and plant which were blocking the yard moved to somewhere more convenient.

We had to work to a very tight budget and this was helped by some large donations in kind including the free hire of cookers from PKL group; a walk-in cold room from The London Refrigeration Society (for the second year) and 500 plastic crates from Teacrates plc running; as well as numerous smaller donations of bedding and food.
We had less people apply to be volunteers than in previous years
and the shift leaders and their assistants, many of whom were new to the role, worked hard to keep things running smoothly. Some volunteers stayed on at the end of their shift to help the next one. A special thank you to them. We had a team of 8 doctors which was more than usual and a dentist who worked every day for the entire week. This enabled us to provide a regular and excellent service. Unfortunately we could not recruit any chiropodists to help this year.
medical statistics

We opened as planned at lunchtime on the 23rd and 66 guests joined us for the first meal. Others arrived during the afternoon and 54 stayed the night. The number of guests increased slightly after that and then remained steady throughout. Some guests came and went during the day, visiting us for the meals or for a particular service; others spent the day elsewhere and returned to us after dark; the majority remained at the Roof 24 hours a day throughout. More guests arrived on the 30th after other Christmas shelters closed and the last night was the busiest, when 77 slept at the Roof. In total WISH provided 482 bed space nights. Average 60.25
Mode 58
Median 58

The atmosphere of the Roof was calm and relaxed throughout, a few guests steadily worked their way through the pile of jigsaws, one guest seemed to do nothing else! The donations of books meant that we had a very extensive library which must have catered for all possible tastes and several guests had not finished the ones they were engrossed in at the end of the Roof so had to take the books with them.
The evenings at the end of the week could not quite be described as calm but this was because we were lucky to have some live entertainment. First up was Swing Therapy which described itself as playing jazz classics but they were soon taking requests from the crowd and covered a wide variety and included a bit of kareoke. There was a double bill on the Saturday starting peacfully with a local church choir who sang carols and a few other popular numbers. To most people's surprise, their keyboard player stayed on to accompany Dr Bob and his loud (very) R&B band who were also joined by many playing air guitar. People asked how one guest managed to watch TV throught this performance. It was decided he must be deaf. On the final night, after everyone had had a full roast beef dinner, personally carved at the "table" by chef, there was more dancing to the sound of Moondance whose rock and roll hits could also be heard in the kitchen in the next building.

By the end of the week, although tired, all involved felt that WISH had achieved its aim of providing a "family" Christmas for the homeless population of West London. We recieved a Christmas card signed by the guests thanking us for a good time.
We handed out questionnaires to guests so that we could get a feedback on all the elements of the Roof and find out what they felt was needed in the future. We also asked the volunteers to complete a questionnaire as many of these have had ideas in the past. The results of these and other statistics from this year's Roof will be on this site when they have been analysed.

WISH Home

WISH is a registered UK charity, No. 1052924

Contact WISH

WISH's Christmas Roof this year was held in the same place as last year's, in the Wilson & Kyle building, 81/87 High Street, Brentford, Middlesex. and was again kindly lent to us by STRATAL LTD care of Jansons & Partners. Luckily the windows were still boarded up from last year and the dental and first aid rooms were mostly in place but vandals had broken all the doors and fixing these or making new ones was a top prority. There was still a good deal of cleaning and painting required, despite the fact that the film company which followed us last year had decorated the walls with ocean scenes.
We had some major problems to overcome. For instance, the electricity cables had been removed as far back as the substation and we were originally told they could not be restored until mid-January! But inspired persuasion on our part and the willingness of London Electricity staff to do the work outside normal hours resulted in power being restored in a few days. We also managed to negotiate to have some large lorries and plant which were blocking the yard moved to somewhere more convenient.
	We had to work to a very tight budget and this was helped by some large donations in kind including the free hire of cookers from PKL group; a walk-in cold room from The London Refrigeration Society (for the second year) and 500 plastic crates from Teacrates plc running; as well as numerous smaller donations of bedding and food. We had less people apply to be volunteers than in previous years and the shift leaders and their assistants, many of whom were new to the role, worked hard to keep things running smoothly. Some volunteers stayed on at the end of their shift to help the next one. A special thank you to them. We had a team of 8 doctors which was more than usual and a dentist who worked every day for the entire week. This enabled us to provide a regular and excellent service. Unfortunately we could not recruit any chiropodists to help this year. medical statistics
We opened as planned at lunchtime on the 23rd and 66 guests joined us for the first meal. Others arrived during the afternoon and 54 stayed the night. The number of guests increased slightly after that and then remained steady throughout. Some guests came and went during the day, visiting us for the meals or for a particular service; others spent the day elsewhere and returned to us after dark; the majority remained at the Roof 24 hours a day throughout. More guests arrived on the 30th after other Christmas shelters closed and the last night was the busiest, when 77 slept at the Roof. In total WISH provided 482 bed space nights.		Average 60.25 Mode 58 Median 58
The atmosphere of the Roof was calm and relaxed throughout, a few guests steadily worked their way through the pile of jigsaws, one guest seemed to do nothing else! The donations of books meant that we had a very extensive library which must have catered for all possible tastes and several guests had not finished the ones they were engrossed in at the end of the Roof so had to take the books with them. The evenings at the end of the week could not quite be described as calm but this was because we were lucky to have some live entertainment. First up was Swing Therapy which described itself as playing jazz classics but they were soon taking requests from the crowd and covered a wide variety and included a bit of kareoke. There was a double bill on the Saturday starting peacfully with a local church choir who sang carols and a few other popular numbers. To most people's surprise, their keyboard player stayed on to accompany Dr Bob and his loud (very) R&B band who were also joined by many playing air guitar. People asked how one guest managed to watch TV throught this performance. It was decided he must be deaf. On the final night, after everyone had had a full roast beef dinner, personally carved at the "table" by chef, there was more dancing to the sound of Moondance whose rock and roll hits could also be heard in the kitchen in the next building.
By the end of the week, although tired, all involved felt that WISH had achieved its aim of providing a "family" Christmas for the homeless population of West London. We recieved a Christmas card signed by the guests thanking us for a good time. We handed out questionnaires to guests so that we could get a feedback on all the elements of the Roof and find out what they felt was needed in the future. We also asked the volunteers to complete a questionnaire as many of these have had ideas in the past. The results of these and other statistics from this year's Roof will be on this site when they have been analysed.