00:00Empathy.
00:01Non-judgmental.
00:02Passionate.
00:03Professional.
00:08Simon on the Streets operates across the Leeds and Bradford area.
00:11We are an outreach and medical practical support charity, supporting those who are facing homelessness
00:15and also those who are currently rough sleeping.
00:17With the cost of living at the moment, there is an even tougher climate out there to acquire funds
00:31so we rely on our amazing corporate partners.
00:33We also rely on our amazing volunteers who are sensual to the charity and we are so grateful
00:38for the amazing support we receive from our volunteer base.
00:41I got involved about 10 years ago.
00:43I met two women that were working with the charity then that asked me to do a little bit of volunteering
00:48for a specific project which I did and gradually I learned more about the work and the impact
00:54that this tiny little independent charity was having on the community of people experiencing homelessness
00:59and it profoundly affected me and 10 years on I'm still volunteering.
01:03It's our 25th anniversary this year.
01:06We're an independent charity.
01:08What that means is that we don't acquire any funding from the government.
01:12So we rely on sponsorships which goes towards supporting outreach workers in Leeds and Bradford.
01:21I started supporting someone on the streets of Bradford.
01:25They had been rough sleeping for a long, long time.
01:28They had lost all trust in services.
01:30You know a lot of places had given up on them.
01:32So I sort of built a relationship with them by buying coffees and I used to sit and talk to them quite a lot.
01:37And then we finally managed to get them housed.
01:40They really struggled within a home environment.
01:43His mental health has been very up and down.
01:45Getting him into the mental health services was tough.
01:48This person came to Simon on the streets through the online website and he wanted help with supportive homelessness
02:03because he was staying in his car.
02:04Which took him straight down to the Leeds Merrin house where he received a housing assessment and a homelessness assessment.
02:11And he was offered his own self-contained flat.
02:14It was all due to relationship breakdowns.
02:17He put everything he had into these relationships and they didn't turn out the way he expected it to be.
02:22First met this person in a food shelter in Bradford and we got speaking and they expressed that they needed some help.
02:29Initially it was quite hard to build up trust with this person.
02:32They've said that they've been let down by services.
02:35They started supporting this person with their recovery because that was something they'd expressed they wanted help with.
02:41One thing that they'd said was that it was the first time that they'd felt loved, which was really heartwarming.
02:48So we have outreach workers in Bradford and in Leeds.
02:52So what that means is, is that we go out into areas of Leeds and Bradford looking for people who are rough sleeping.
03:00I went through the homelessness, couldn't turn to family, couldn't turn to friends.
03:05I'm embarrassed, lonely and I went from being homeless to going through a temporary accommodation system.
03:13Signing on the streets gave me that freedom to go out there and teach my coping mechanisms, making people feel less lonely.
03:21I've had some lived experiences, some of the issues that our service users go through on a day to day basis.
03:27I believe everyone has a chance to turn their life around.
03:31I don't believe that people wake up from a fantastic life and think I'm going to sleep on the streets and take drugs today.
03:37They've done it because of trauma and if no one had helped me, I wouldn't be where I am today.
03:42By me being there for them, I can show them what it's like to be loved, to be cared for and then in turn they'll start to love and care for themselves.
03:48It took a very long time of working together to get them to the place where they were able to accept that support.
03:55A really important thing about Simon on the Streets is that we can offer consistent support to people.
04:01It's someone that they always know is going to be there.
04:04They'll always have my phone number, so if they feel like they're struggling or it's not working, they know they can always ring me.
04:10They were doing really well, they were in a really good place in recovery and had established some really good relationships with the people there.
04:22We did however get some really upsetting news that they had passed away and that is one of the really difficult aspects about this job.
04:30A positive we can take from it is that she was in a loving environment for the last months of her life.
04:36We need more workers to carry out the vital outreach work that we do in the two areas of Leeds and Bradford.
04:43We need the funding to do that and we need sustainable funding as well.
04:48The demand for our work at the moment sadly is on the increase and therefore the costs around the charity continues to increase which is a risk at the moment.
04:56Therefore that's why we are so grateful for the amazing support we receive with our donations and please keep supporting the charity to enable us to reach as many possible as we can across the Leeds and Bradford area.
05:06Providing hope for those without a voice.
05:15Do we want to be here another 25 years? Not really, no. But the reality is we've never been needed more than we are now.
05:21How can you help? Donate, fundraise, volunteer, just get involved. We're going to be here for a while and we need you.
05:29We're going to be here for a while and we need you.
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