We’re excited to announce that our Outreach team will be hosting a drop-in service at Malvern Town Football Club every other Thursday between 10am – 12pm, starting from the 10th of October.
The drop-in service will primarily be for people experiencing homelessness, whether this be rough sleeping, hidden homelessness such as sleeping in their cars or sofa surfing, or those who are vulnerable and need tailored support.
Claire Hooper, Maggs’ Outreach Team Manager explains: “Our Outreach team are excited to have been invited to do a drop-in at the Malvern Town Football Club. The purpose of this additional service is to offer support with anything from Homeless Approach to foodbank and Clothing Project referrals to signposting to other agencies.”
“This will also be an opportunity to pick up any new rough sleepers and people experiencing homelessness and start the process to help them with whatever they need to make the next step into living in accommodation. Additionally, the drop-in enables our team to work with individuals who do not access our day centre, learn more about Universal Credit and other benefits and have help on hand if we need advice on these areas. A great partnership all around to help those who need it the most!
The Help Centre, hosted predominantly by Platform Housing, offer a weekly service welcoming various other organisations such as Citizens Advice Bureau, Social Prescribers, Worcester City Council housing options advisors, Age UK, Digital Champions, Housing Officers, Community Builders and Wellbeing & Life Skills Advisors.
Platform Housing set up the Help Centre in 2016 as part of a digital initiative to help our customers get online safely in one of the highest areas of deprivation in the country.
Soon after inception, the service developed into a broader provider after realising the demand required, so partnered with the life and wellbeing coaches at Community Housing to then offering everything from housing to debt management.
Tim Marsh, Digital Transformation Officer at Platform Housing Group, confirms: “We are looking forward to hosting the Maggs Outreach team at our help centre. We’re constantly challenged by customers who are about to be homeless, which has risen significantly over the last few months, so we’re excited have their expertise and cater to those who may not have engaged with us before.”
“Homelessness can be married to a number of things so having all of these agencies under one roof will be fantastic and hopefully we will continue to deliver positive outcomes for those in need.”
Alongside this drop-in, we also have our day centre in Malvern which is open twice a week, where service users can receive a cooked breakfast, tailored support, food donated from local supermarkets and access drop-ins from other organisations such as the NHS health bus.
However, the Outreach team’s objective is to ‘Engage with the Unengaged’, and this role is designed to be the first to engage directly with service users to build that trust, provide pathways and support people off the streets, whether to encourage them to access our day centres or even deliver clothes and food to their tent if that is what the individual requires.
For more information, please get in touch with us at info@maggsdaycentre.co.uk.
