Homeless Friendly Report for Trustees April 2022 - March 2023
Background
Homeless Friendly has been established over 5 years, being registered as a charity in April 2019. The charity continues to grow and is respected in not only Greater Manchester but also by organisations further afield.
We wish to acknowledge and thank our trustees, in particular our trustee Vicky Riding who passed away early in April 2022. Vicky requested that any donation made on her behalf be given to Homeless Friendly. The charity received £4,156.36 from Vicky’s kind gesture. We have a plaque in her honor situated in the office at Royton Medical Centre.
Areas of growth and change within the last 12 months
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Homeless Link, Homeless Friendly continues to be an active member of Homeless Link
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GM partnership, we continue to be part of this group which influences the 10 Greater Manchester Authorities.
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NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) . We are now a recognised stakeholder where we contributed to the guideline on ‘integrated health and social care for people experiencing homelessness’.
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Manchester Airport, we are an active member of this homeless group having linked 2 local GP practices to people homeless at the airport. Through our intervention one of those practices is now a key member of the group.
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Rough Sleeper Strategy Group Oldham, we are a member of the steering group
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Flu vaccination, Homeless Friendly for the last 3 years has held the contract alongside Royton Medical Centre offering the flu vaccination to people who are homeless, ensuring that we can offer the vaccines in locations which people freely attend.
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COVID Vaccination we have continued to ensure that people who are homeless are offered the Covid vaccination alongside the flu vaccination.
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Volunteers , we use volunteers on and ad hoc basis, plus have access to doctors and a nurse who offer vaccinations on a voluntary basis.
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The CRM system (data base) we record client interactions, queries plus organisations that sign up to our pledge.
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Gift Aid Homeless Friendly can now claim Gift Aid on appropriate donations given in the last 4 years (with the donor’s consent)
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Policies and Procedures as the charity grows, we continue to incorporate plus review policies and procedures.
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Card Printing machine, we have made ID badges for all the Beacon Surgeries, we have now drawn up costing for other local charities. We have also formulated policies relating to data protection of people’s information.
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Ukraine Effort, we supported Lunar Aid to access medical supplies which they transported over to Ukraine.
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Winter Warm Kits, The project for this winter was to offer warm kits to people who are Homeless, the kits consisted of a small rucksack complete with hat, scarf, gloves, socks and hand warmers, the kits proved extremely popular and were distributed via out local partners throughout Greater Manchester, we distributed 100 kits at an approximate cost of £10 per kit.
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Warm Spaces with the rising cost of utilities many people found it difficult to keep warm, we pulled together information from across Greater Manchester of where there were places where people could go to keep warm. This information has been used by Street Support and other local charities.
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Shields we awarded our first shield to EGG Charity, the CEO Jonathan Billings of this newly formed charity has previously worked for two other charities, pro-actively ensuring that the charities are Homeless Friendly. We felt it fitting that he be awarded a shield in recognition of his work in ensuring that people who are homeless are always at the centre of his work.
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Training has recommenced, we continue to grow offering pledges and the training sessions which are extremely popular.
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Pledges , this year saw a continued growth in organisations pledging, we are proud to inform that we saw our first PCN pledge with covers the areas Droylsden, Audenshaw and Dukinfield.
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We also had our first pledge in Wales, Sanctuary Trust who work across North Wales.
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PA of the Year Award we are very proud that our Jayne Livesey in being recognised for all her hard work by being awarded the prestigious award of PA Of The Year .
Areas of Growth for the next 12 months
Hot Line – Whilst we have yet to officially launch our hot line, we continue to assist with problem solving and signposting, The main phone line’s answer phone facility now links to the manager’s email where she checks this on a daily basis ensuring that any urgent query are responded to in a timely manner. We stil intend to produce our own information cards.
We hope to offer long term placements to volunteers , helping to develop their skills in relations to administrative tasks.
Identification Cards we now have robust policies in place to ensure we meet the requirement of data protection and are offering to ‘make’ ID’s for other recognised charities, we hope this will also provide an opportunity for a volunteer to develop skills in this area.
Our training continues to evolve, we are looking at trialing online training, plus offering training via ‘Teams or Zoom’ and pledge sign ups via our website.
Mail Merge We are now able to access this facility, which will enable us to inform our partners/supporters of local information and ensure they receive our newsletter.
Homeless Friendly recognises the difficulty that people who are homeless have in accessing local dental care . We continue to work with Dr Ben Atkins plus local dentists to encourage and support them to offer a service to people who without a fixed abode.
Homeless Friendly continues to assist Human Friendly International during its developmental stages.
We recognise that our trustees, partners, plus the local community continue to donate to our good cause, we ensure that donations are allocated to appropriate people or services and want to end by thanking everyone that has helped Homeless Friendly over the last 12 months.
Financial Statement
At close of business on 31st March 2023 Balance £17,574.21 (awaiting audited accounts)
Gail Sutcliffe salary is paid by Beacon GP Care hence not showing as an expenditure as are the hours that Jayne Livesey works supporting our charity. BARDOC pay for Homeless Friendly’s mobile phone
Homeless Friendly is based within Lime Square Medical Centre and Royton Medical Centre all utilities are kindly paid for via the respective surgeries.
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