St Mungo’s Chief Executive, Howard Sinclair, reflects on the achievements by clients, staff and volunteers this year and looks ahead to 2018.
This time of year – however you mark the holidays – can be a time of reflection, gratitude and goodwill.
Reflecting on 2017, I’ve been thinking about our clients’ achievements this year.
Mandy (pictured centre), for example. Her story has included mental health issues, family relationship breakdown and sleeping rough.
Mandy now lives in a St Mungo’s project in Islington which is for people who need some support. She’s also connected in with our client representative group Outside In and our innovative Recovery College. In Mandy’s blog she wrote: “I am at a turning point in my life, where my life is more positive. I can honestly say I am doing things I never thought I would do. If it wasn’t for St Mungo’s I would most likely be dead, they saved my life.”
On 21 June 2017 she and her friend Claire, who is also a client at St Mungo’s, led a team of St Mungo’s clients and staff up Snowdon. Between them they raised over £40,000 for St Mungo’s.
It was a tremendous thing to do and a privilege to hear her talk about it at our Carol Concert this year. My very best wishes to her and all of the Snowdon Challenge team. Please do read more about what they accomplished and why.
And Paul (pictured right). He’s an apprentice in our Housing First scheme in Brighton. This year he told us: “I have peace of mind, a safe home, a pound in my pocket, food in the cupboard and good friends – that’s a world beyond my wildest dreams.”
My congratulations to him and all those involved in our award-winning apprenticeship scheme for people with lived experience of homelessness. Apprentices like Garry (pictured left), who works in one of our projects for people with mental health needs.
He told us about his new role: “It feels really good that I’m helping people to recover – it’s that old cliché ‘giving something back’. I’m being a resource rather than using the resource.”
I agree with his sentiment that: “There’s outside stuff beyond St Mungo’s where frustrations lie, for example, things that should be different with the government, but you have to work with what you’ve got. There are only some things you can impact.”
We live in a complicated world, where homelessness is rising and, without more joined up national and local strategies, the concern is that welfare changes, lack of affordable accommodation and other social factors may see even more of a rise in rough sleeping and homelessness.
But homelessness is not inevitable. In 2018 I will be sitting on the Rough Sleeping Advisory Panel, made up of people from charities and local government. Our role is to support a new Ministerial Taskforce, which brings together ministers from key departments to provide a cross-government approach to preventing rough sleeping and homelessness. I will be making sure our client voices are heard as we feedback on ways we can work together to end homelessness and rebuild people’s lives.
Thank you to our clients, staff and amazing volunteers and supporters for their dedication and commitment this year. May I wish you all a happy and peaceful holiday. Here’s to 2018.
