We’ve posted a couple of pleas for help over the festive period so far – one was to donate items to the Huggard Centre, helping the homeless in Cardiff, and the other was to donate toiletries for Project Shoebox, helping women and children in shelters across Cardiff and the local region. We’ll post an update on Project Shoebox soon, but in the meantime we’ve got ANOTHER plea for help – this time to help keep open the Nightshelter in Cardiff.

DONATE TO KEEP THE NIGHTSHELTER OPEN

The Nightshelter opened in 1998. It was intended as a bridge between the street and hostel and originally was established as a time-limited winter shelter. It provides safety, warmth and food. Residents can take a hot shower, use the laundry facilities and enjoy a proper cooked meal. They also signpost people to longer-term solutions so they can escape the streets.

Residents have access to a support worker. Need assessments, risk assessments and support plans are produced. Resettlement, benefits and liaison with health, criminal justice agencies and gateway is part of the core service provided.

The Nightshelter provides 10 beds of emergency accommodation (plus two additional emergency beds that have never received public funding) in the Riverside area of Cardiff. Residents can access the Nightshelter between the hours of 7:30pm – 9:30am.

It has five shared bedrooms, a communal living room, kitchen, bathroom and WC. The Nightshelter is used by rough sleepers aged 18 and over, including vulnerable women and young people. Shockingly, in the last year, one third of those who accessed the service were aged 18 – 25.

In 2003, revenue funding received was £155,154. In 2014 approximately £97,000 was cut from the budget leaving just £60,000 to run the service. In 2015 the proposal is £0.

As a result of cuts to Local Authority funding, the emergency Nightshelter in Cardiff is in danger of closing. More than 250 people use the crucial service every year. Closure would mean an additional 10 to 12 people would be forced to sleep rough on the streets of Cardiff every night.

DONATE TO KEEP THE NIGHTSHELTER OPEN

We need to raise £21,000 to keep the shelter open. The shelter has already secured £20,000 towards running costs and is working hard with fundraising events and bucket collections to raise the rest. Keeping the Nightshelter open for the next 12 months depends on your generosity – we need this Crowdfunding appeal to reach its target so we can keep vulnerable people safe.

SO FAR the Crowdfunding appeal has raised over £4k. That’s great, BUT IT’S NOT ENOUGH.

DONATE TO KEEP THE NIGHTSHELTER OPEN

Here are We Are Cardiff (bearing in mind WAC s a voluntary project that doesn’t make any money and relies entirely on voluntary contributions), we’ve donated £25. It’s not much, but if everyone in the city donated just ONE POUND the Nightshelter would raise over £300K!

If you’re yet to buy some loved ones their gifts, how about donating a little money towards helping keep the Nightshelter open – then tell your friends and family about their incredible altruism.

PLEASE HELP KEEP THE NIGHTSHELTER OPEN! DONATE HERE: NIGHTSHELTER CROWDFUNDER

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all of you – and please try and spare whatever you can to help the less fortunate at this cold and dark time of year, eh?

Helia

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