Sunrise1

Sunrise.Street Pastors Logo

Serving others gladly.

The initial meeting about the breakfasts provision (19 Jan 2022, St Chad’s church hall) was led by one of the Street Pastors, but also addressed very movingly by a representative of the Ark. It was informative and inspirational. Thanks also to Mary and Sue for refreshments, and to others for helping to clear up.

 

This page:

  • gives the information from the meeting; please pass it on to any who couldn’t make it.
  • allows you to request the form from the secretary to FILL IN AND RETURN  in order to become a registered volunteer.  Please apply and send it off if you have not already done so – we still need more volunteers.
  • advertises the hoped-for first service date of 27 Feb. 2022

 

Also:

Memo 1: everyone who is to cook will need a food hygiene accreditation, level 2. They are done online, and not hard to achieve. They cost around £10-20, but we are in discussion with Shrewsbury College as to whether they can do a sensible deal for us. Details to follow, however if you’d like to crack on, please go ahead under your own steam. Caution: some courses are more expensive than others. Do shop around – or wait for an update. Please email the secretary with any updates on qualifications.

Corollary: several of you commented that teams of 12 seemed a bit excessive – agreed! It is more likely that we will have a team leader (i/c security, keys, safety, able and willing to do anything), 2 cooks (3 if it gets busy), and 3 or 4 helpers. IE between 6 and 8 on shift at any time. Experience may bring about further changes, but we could start with that. Front of house and a good welcome will be important, too.

Memo 2: we will probably run a training session in the hall one Sunday at which a small trial team will provide us all with breakfast. To test the processes, timings, etc. Details to follow.

 

Other things from the meeting:

  • Sunrise seeks to provide a good welcome, smiley faces, and a decent breakfast to any rough-sleeper who wants it.
  • Sunrise does not provide pastoral care, hence NO DBS is needed.
  • Any pastoral, emotional, other issues that arise can, with the permission of the individual, be recorded on a form and sent on to the Ark for follow up on Monday morning.
  • Street Pastors and other specialists will be on hand in the early weeks, until the routines are established.
  • We might expect a maximum of about 20, with normally anywhere between 8 and 15 guests.
  • We will never know what food is available until the morning! It could range across any or all of: cereals, yoghurts, pastries, toast and spreads, anything cooked – more on that in due course. Tea, coffee, chocolate + lots and lots of sugar. (“Only 6 today? Yeah – I’m cutting back.”)

shrewsburyark-logo bw.jpg

Background.

There is a wide network of support for the homeless and Sunrise is to be a small but significant part in it.
  • The Ark operates Mon- Fri, provides 2 hot meals a day, a GP clinic, pastoral care, lots more. It is moving soon to new premises, the old Rock and Fountain.
  • The Council assist, at No 70, near the sorting office, providing up to 12 beds for accommodation with training to help rough sleepers back into accommodation and to get used to living inside again and how to manage housing and bills.
  • The Street Pastors go out Friday and Saturday nights from 10pm on patrol, to keep the streets safe via a raft of methods. Keeping late party-returners away from the river, talking people down off bridges if they are at the very end of their tether, checks and balances on the rough sleepers, and lots more.
  • The Soup Hub is a Street Pastors thing too, providing soup on cold nights to rough sleepers.
  • The Council are legally obliged to find accommodation for rough sleepers if the temperature is forecast to dip below freezing for three consecutive nights – in conjunction with Street Pastors.
  • The Food Hub accepts surplus from supermarkets and divides it up between charities who can use it to provide for others. Sunrise food will come from the Food Hub.
  • The Food Bank is separate – it operates from Barnabas Community Church in Coleham; vouchers can be issued to any in need by churches and other organisations, and the vouchers are redeemed for a food package.
  • Saturday breakfast is catered for by (I think Steve said this) ?the Methodists? Please forgive my lack of detail here, and if I’ve got that wrong, my apologies.
  • Sunrise is to provide Sunday breakfasts for rough-sleepers. Food will come from the Food hub, possibly delivered on the morning (otherwise to be collected at some appropriate time).

 

Thank you to all who have already filled in the form. Please do so if you have not yet: you can scan a return if you prefer that to sending it by post. Both the email and the postal address are on the form.

Further volunteers are welcome – please ask them to email me so that I can add their contact to the email list.
With best wishes and many thanks to all,