We were recently approached by the Central team at Alight Media to offer their volunteering time to us and were delighted that they agreed to host a late summertime BBQ fun session at our Redditch Harm Reduction drop-in.
The team got stuck in, bought and donated all the food, put together some fun games, cooked and prepared the food and made everyone feel incredibly welcome.
Ros Hill, Regional Manager at Alight Media, explains: “Our organisation allows each team time to volunteer at a local charity as part of our CSR policy. We approached Maggs and got in touch with Melissa who pitched to us the idea of hosting an event at their Redditch drop-in and we immediately knew it was something we wanted to be a part of.
The day was incredible, but we wanted to highlight the conversations our team had with people and the things they learnt about them which gave them a greater understanding of what people are facing and a greater appreciation of what they have personally.
“It was excellent to hear that we didn’t just come and feed people but we got the chance to spend time talking to them and learn their stories which hopefully gave the service users users a feeling of being seen and heard.
We cannot thank the team enough for this invaluable experience and we look forward to working more together in the future!”
The drop-in is in place for our team to offer clean works, Naxolone provision and training, BBV testing and a safe space to talk about alcohol and substance use for our current service users but also those who haven’t used or heard about our services before, particularly in the Redditch area.
The Harm Reduction team partners with homelessness, health providers, and other relevant agencies to engage people with services to address substance misuse and any health-related issue associated with substance dependency.
Lauren, our Harm Reduction Worker, confirms: “This July, we celebrated one year of the Redditch Harm Reduction drop-in. It was so nice to be able to celebrate the service users and the Redditch community with a BBQ on Thursday and I wanted to say a massive thank you to Alight Media for volunteering and providing the service users with great food and activities.
A long-standing member of the Redditch community and service user of ours said to me, “It has been years since I have seen all of the Redditch community
together like this, it’s nice”, and this to me highlights what it is all about.
Over the last year, we have seen the Harm Reduction drop-in become a staple to the community with around 12-13 service users accessing the service each week, but yesterday we had a record-breaking 25 attendees! I cannot express just how happy this made me and I hope we can do something like this for the service users again in the future!”
The team goes anywhere that a person experiencing homelessness needs support, provides various support, and works collaboratively to break down barriers to develop innovative and robust pathways to engage people and support our service users to adopt safer practices and reduce harm.
If you would like to know more about Harm Reduction or volunteer with us, please get in touch at info@maggsdaycentre.co.uk.
