Safehaven Street Community

A team of volunteers from Brighton College work with St Paters Church “Safehaven” to prepare and deliver a hot evening meal to Brighton’s Street Community.

Aims

A team of volunteers from Brighton College work with St Paters Church “Safehaven” to prepare and deliver a hot evening meal to Brighton’s Street Community.

Background

Homelessness and social isolation of the street community is a visible problem in the city of Brighton and Hove, and is an issue our pupils and staff care deeply about. Due to our existing links with St Peters Church, we decided to formalise this partnership into a regular volunteering opportunity for pupils and staff, with teams attending on a weekly basis to help prepare or serve the evening meal, and some acting as the “welcome team” and dining with the guests from the street community and engaging in conversation with them.

Resources

Staff and pupils (over 16 years old).

Impact

Safehaven were able to increase their volunteer numbers and rely on a constant presence of reliable volunteers, and so were better able to plan ahead for the street community meals. The regular visits created a greater awareness of Safehaven and its aims amongst staff and pupil body, and by discussing their experiences in chapel pupils were able to share this information with younger pupils. More pupils have advocated for homeless charities including Safehaven as part of our charity hustings, and 100% of volunteers have said they would highly recommend the experience to others and would volunteer again. Many pupils and staff have volunteered independently in the school holidays following their initial visit.

Pupil Involvement

10 pupils and 1 staff member.

Frequency

Saturdays, 18 visits per academic year.