Latest News :

Dealing with the impacts of the ongoing pandemic and its impact on homeless people is of utmost relevance so instead of our usual Home Page I will include the content of our most recent bulletin and links to previous ones.

Things are moving quickly so don’t expect this to stay current for long but I will try to give at least a weekly update.

COVID-19 – Volunteering opportunities

Bristol has had a wealth of services supporting homeless people many of which are represented in this forum. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic we are all rapidly making adjustments to the way these services are provided, in some cases by having to close services and in others by radically changing the way the service is delivered. There has been a gratifying amount of collaborative activity to achieve this change.

Many services have volunteer teams who can no longer safely help in the way they are used to.

Other developing and collaborative services are in need of additional volunteers.

This page is designed to show how you might be able to volunteer for some of these emerging services and will be kept as up to date as practical in this changing world

Cheers Drive

Caring in Bristol are taking the lead in coordinating the provision of 3 meals a day to those who have been accommodated in hotels, B&Bs. A massive undertaking for which they’re receiving lots of support, but still need more.
As they set up this military scale operation running across 3 kitchens, they will be promoting further volunteering opportunities. For the time being the immediate need is for drivers who can collect and deliver food packages in the city. If you want help contact cheersdrive@caringinbristol.org.uk

Hotel Assistant Volunteers

St Mungo’s are asking volunteers to sign up to become Hotel Assistant Volunteers as they work with Bristol City Council to support our rough sleeping community accommodated in  hotels as emergency accommodation.  

They have contacted their partner organisations to find suitable volunteers with experience of working with our client group in an accommodation style environment.

If your organisation has volunteers who may be able to support St Mungo’s in the Hotel Assistant Role please email: beanie.rowe@mungos.org or give her a call on 07889804619

C19 Support to Homelessness Prevention Pathways (SHPP)

Volunteers are needed as an additional staff resource, to support clients placed in supported living hostels in the Homelessness Prevention Pathway  (initially likely to be Logos House and Second Step hostels).

Volunteer role is initially to cover/shadow reception and to assist with support work providing face-to-face support where necessary and remote support (phone, email etc) where possible.

If you are interested in this volunteer role please contact Claire Sheppard, Coordinator (SHPP),Tel:07460531008 Email: claire.sheppard@bristol.gov.uk

Food provision for homeless people on the street

Despite the successful efforts to move people from the street into accommodation there is still a need to feed those who are not yet in satisfactory accommodation and an expected flow of newly homeless people.

Collaborative approaches are being worked on which may provide a single point of contact for volunteers. In the meantime please contact those organisations which are still providing services and/or are part of the collaborative effort such as InHope (the Wild Goose) and the Methodist Centre.

Recent Bulletins

For the bulletin dated March 27th Click Here

Other news

• Homeless Action Week : we’re still looking at ways to run an online event but it’s clearly not going to be as originally intended. Look out for more detail on this.
• If you want to get an understanding of what’s happening in the homeless sector nationwide, Homeless Link are running a weekly webinar on Wednesday afternoons 3-4pm.
  • Most recent 1st April

Bristol Homeless Forum is open to any individual or organisation working with the issues of people who are homeless in Bristol. While there is much attention to those who are currently street homeless or rough sleeping we recognise that this is only a small, visible part of a much wider issue which affects many more people.

Want to join the forum? See our welcome flyer for information about joining the forum & to join just click  Subscribe to join and receive invitations to future events. This will add your given email address to our MailChimp distribution list and will only be used to issue emails from this site and invite you to relevant events. You can unsubscribe at any time.

If you have something to say feel free to use the comments sections throughout the site.

See the Top Menu ‘Useful Links’ for links to organisations in the forum (& a few others who haven’t joined yet).