00:00Well it's been a great celebratory year where we've looked back over the full 95 years from
00:04our very very humble beginnings to the amazing estate that's now St George's Crypt where we
00:11look after 159 people across the entirety of Leeds. We've developed into a 365 day year,
00:19you know 24 hour a day project where we just look after people from bench right through to
00:25independence and I think that's a great thing to celebrate. My name is Will Burns and I'm the
00:29events fundraiser for St George's Crypt. So I put on all the events to raise money for the charity.
00:36So a big event tomorrow, tell us a bit about it. So we've got our 95th ball at the Queen's Hotel
00:42tomorrow. Massive, massive event. It's the biggest fundraiser we've done here at St George's Crypt.
00:48A big glitzy ball. I've got some really amazing entertainers coming along. It's going to be a
00:53fantastic night. Hopefully raise lots and lots of money and of course it's a big anniversary for
00:58our 95th year of the charity. How important are events like these to raising awareness and funds
01:06for the Crypts? Events are so so important. You know it's not just about making the money
01:11to be able to support all the projects that we've got at St George's Crypt but it's the awareness.
01:16It's getting people to these events, having a wonderful evening, having a great time and
01:20remembering actually they've been part of something really really special, really really important.
01:24I think sometimes people don't even realise that they can be sit back, have an amazing
01:29time, watch a brilliant band and they've just contributed towards some of our amazing projects.
01:35I'm Shardia Kamara. Why I'm here? I was in active addiction for 25 years. I've been in
01:41growing rooms for women for three weeks. Loving it. The support, the lovingness and the
01:48nature that the women give and the staff and the peers is absolutely amazing.
01:52How did you first come to find St George's Crypt and what sort of help have you received
02:00from the charity?
02:01Basically my baby's father was in LGIs, I had a 20th chance of living and he was staying
02:06in the Crypt and he told me that he was staying in the Crypt. Then he went into a rehab alpha over
02:12in Halifax. And obviously because I'm in growing rooms for women, I do voluntary here on a Tuesday
02:17and a Thursday, which I absolutely love.
02:21What does volunteering here mean to you?
02:24Volunteering mean to me? It means a lot of things. It makes me happy and it makes me
02:29giving back to the community where these lovely ladies have given to me, helping me get clean.
02:35I hope we continue doing what we're doing in terms of identifying different needs and
02:42different stages of the journey of homelessness and of independence. And I hope that we can,
02:53certainly in terms of the rehabs that we've got, I'd like to be able to capture people.
02:59Sometimes going into a rehab is too big a step. So I'd like to be able to put something in
03:05in the interim that will, you know, wet the appetite to get clean and support people without
03:11them making that huge step. So I'd like to think that we will fill those gaps. We'll support
03:18as many people as we can and we'll continue just, I said diversifying, but yeah, just dealing
03:24with individual needs and doing what we do best. I'm just looking after and being kind,
03:30non-judgmental and still having a door that opens every day to feed people.
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