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1999 / 2000: A REVIEW |
| West London Initiative on Single Homelessness |
During the Roof, an advice service is available to attempt to provide longer-term support. Depending on individuals' needs, this may involve finding short or long term accommodation, helping with benefits claims, and arranging access to health care, including registration with a GP, detoxification or continuing help with addiction problems.
Perhaps most importantly of all, the Christmas Roof welcomes guests with respect and sensitivity, providing an opportunity for them to enjoy the companionship of other guests and volunteers in a welcoming, relaxed and non-threatening environment. The guests are a mixture of rough sleepers and the hidden homeless - those sleeping in friends' or borrowed accommodation or those who have secured accommodation but remain lonely and may not have the resources - mental, physical or financial - to support themselves. All are welcome.
| After a period of extensive research into the needs of rough sleepers in West London, WISH has launched an outreach service. | |
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The service provides companionship, advice, food, bespoke clothing and basic toiletries. A van has been purchased to enable this work to be carried out, initially on a fortnightly basis. Having established this service, the challenges ahead are numerous; the range of services will expand and the frequency of runs will increase to weekly. This has created greater opportunities to forge links with other agencies
and organisations in West London, to provide a complementary range of services
for rough sleepers.
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| Initial feedback from service users has been very positive. We will continue to listen to the views of our users, as this will enable us to implement a needs-based service. | |
| Each year, on the third Sunday in September, we hold a "Riverside Ramble"; a fifteen mile sponsored walk which has become a regular feature of the WISH calendar. | |
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Groups of walkers depart from Putney Bridge and follow the Thames to Richmond. Here at the half way mark some choose to finish their walk whilst others join for the second half. The walk finishes at Hampton Court on the towpath outside the palace and walkers take between five and seven hours. As there is no time limit, the walk is a pleasant stroll coupled with an opportunity to meet old friends and make new ones. The income generated by this event is an important contribution to the ROOF running costs |
| WISH Home | WISH is a registered UK charity, No. 1052924 | Contact WISH |
