Lifeline needs cash

Mar 6 2008 by Val Javin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

LIFELINE NEEDS CASH

A CHARITY which helps people in Huddersfield whose lives are in crisis has only enough money to survive until the summer.

For the last 10 years the Welcome Centre, which is based at Huddersfield Methodist Mission on Lord Street, has been a life-saver, tiding people over in times of crisis, getting them through periods in their lives too difficult for most of us to contemplate.

Thanks to the townspeople’s generosity an appeal in the Examiner in the run-up to Christmas brought in masses of groceries, bedding and toiletries, all of which are packed up and distributed to people who desperately need them.

“We are really hopeful that the project is developing and going forward,” said its co-ordinator Karen Selley. “But we have really serious funding issues. There is only enough money in the pot until July to pay for staff and the projects’s running costs.”

Many agencies refer people to the Welcome Centre, which provides them with just some of life’s necessities in a bid to tide them over rough times until longer-term provision can be made.

It means that families, single people and the homeless can be given food, toiletries and, if need be, bedding.

Karen, who joined the Welcome Centre last autumn, works part-time; she is the project’s only paid member of staff. She is supported by volunteers who work in the project’s store areas but who are unable to deal directly with clients.

Initially, Karen was contracted to work 12 hours a week, but because of the overwhelming response to the pre-Christmas publicity, has had her hours extended to 21.

She’s been putting in many extra hours on a voluntary basis, just to keep up with the work that the project generates.

She said: “It was 12 hours before all the donated goods came in over Christmas, but it was beyond dealing with.

“The management committee put up my hours to 21 until the end of May. They hope to continue that if we get the funding that we need.”

Because the project is based at the Methodist Mission many people assume it is paid for by the church.

“The Welcome Centre is a registered charity in its own right, but it is not funded by the mission,” said Karen.

“We are enormously supported and encouraged by them. We rent our office space, but the mission kindly donates storage space for all our grocery and other stock.

“It also supports us through the volunteers who work on the mission’s reception and are the first people that our clients meet when they come through the doors.”

“The Welcome Centre is run by a volunteer management committee and we have to find our own funding. We did have a small community grant from Kirklees Council. But that is now finished and we have had one or two other small grants from a charitable trust. They are also running out.

“We are now looking urgently at funding bids and desperately need to find enough to tide us over while we make other applications for money,’’ said Karen.

“We need to raise between £17,000 and £20,000 each year to run the project. That is the cheapest project that I have ever been involved with.

“All the goods that we are able to give people who are referred to us are donated. All that has to be paid for are staff and running costs.”

Since the project came under the spotlight in the run-up to Christmas the Welcome Centre is dealing with more referrals and has made links with more agencies.

Karen adds: “We are now working with about 50 agencies and I am making contact with two or three more each month. The referrals are going up.

“We are giving out twice as many packs as we were doing in the same period last year and about a third more since the appeal in the Examiner.

“It is a double-edged sword. It is wonderful that more agencies are getting to know about us, but that puts more pressure on us to deliver this much-needed project.

“Some companies and some of the agencies that we work with have a box at work for people to give food items, which they then deliver to us. It’s providing a small, steady stream of goods coming through from that.”

Karen is also delighted that Sainsbury’s is backing the project by giving fresh produce and items nearing their sell-by dates.

“Now that we are working with Sainsbury’s it’s fantastic. Bread and butter were the only things that I used to have to buy. Sainsbury’s offered us bread, fresh fruit and items such as yoghurts when they are available, plus some tinned foods.

“Last week I was able to give families things such as oranges, bananas and broccoli, all high in vitamins and items that we have previously been unable to provide.

“We are delighted to have established this connection and to be able to provide some element of fresh food in our packs. After all, your mental health is affected by your physical wellbeing and many of the people that we deal with are in extremely stressful and vulnerable situations.

“What we do is unconditional. We support people irrespective of their backgrounds and circumstances. What we do is non-judgmental of the situation that people find themselves in.

“It goes back to people’s right to have food. If you are not being fed how are you supposed to cope with the difficulties that many people face,” said Karen.

Since Christmas, Karen has taken on eight new volunteers who came forward thanks to recent publicity.

“We now have a real diversity of volunteers offering a whole range of skills. One of them is particularly good at IT and is proving very helpful.’’

Letters are being sent out to local firms to see if they can help to pay for this vital service and Karen is looking around for cash. But all of that takes time and the project is fast running out of that.

If you can help contact the Welcome Project on 01484 340034.