Run and help the homeless this Christmas.
Sign up in December to Ealing Half Marathon 2016 and we’ll donate £5.00 for every runner to the Winter Night Shelter who provide essential services for those in need.
Ealing Churches Winter Night Shelter provide emergency dormitory style accommodation for up to 14 guests from those who are sleeping on the streets, are at immediate risk of rough sleeping locally and the ‘hidden homeless’. The shelter’s are open not just over Christmas but all during the winter months (from late November to the end of March).
On each night of the week, whilst the shelter is open, a different church opens its doors to our guests, providing a hot meal, somewhere to sleep, breakfast and above all else, companionship and friendship. On average, guests stay with us for about 4 weeks before moving on – hopefully to more permanent housing.
In 2014-15, Ealing had 219 people recorded sleeping on the streets, according to the GLA official “CHAIN” reports, and many more in precarious accommodation on friends’ floors, night buses, etc. ECWNS stands in the gap by providing for the most basic and essential needs for homeless people – sleep and food. A person who has been made homeless faces enormous risks as a rough sleeper including substance abuse, poor physical and mental health, and acts of criminality. ECWNS seeks to minimise these risks by creating a safe space for homeless people to find temporary respite while helping them to secure more permanent accommodation.
Providing temporary respite ‘buys’ some more time before guests become further entrenched in homelessness and are adversely, and sometimes irreversibly, affected by the risks presented by homelessness. Each guest is offered 28 days in the shelter, during which time ECWNS works with partner agencies (St. Mungo’s Broadway, Ealing Soup Kitchen and Acton Homeless Concern) and local housing services to look for a way to move on.
Why wait? Sign up now to help those in need, make your run count even more by helping give back this Christmas: www.ealinghalfmarathon.com
#help #community #homeless #ealingfeeling #ealinghalf #christmas
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