HHCP MARVELLOUS MOBILE COMMUNITY HUB
Location: City of Hull and the immediate outlying areas
Start date: December 2017
End date: Ongoing
Grant: £5000
The Project: The project provides the City of Hull with a mobile hub for use by the homeless and rootless community, the residents and visitors offering food, essentials, outreach support and a friendly point of contact. They wanted to provide a multipurpose vehicle to use for mobile outreach and support which would enable them to cover more of the City on any given day rather than being static in one place.
Key aims: This project aimed to:
Empower people to make a positive change in their lives and reach those in need and ensure they have access to support and services. Reach every section of the wider community on the issues surrounding homelessness, social responsibility, inclusion and diversity. Create volunteering opportunities for the community with full training and ongoing support. The project feels confident that they have achieved all of these aims as the community hub is up and running.
Efficiency: This project is linked to the Vision of Efficiency North and specifically communities and workforce. We passionately believe the project will make a real difference by empowering people to make a positive change in their lives and reach those in need and ensure they have access to support and services. It breaks down social barriers and provides a different approach to tackling social issues. It inspires confidence in the ability of social enterprise groups and small charities to be able to make a lasting, tangible difference to the people of the community in which they live supporting already vital existing services and strengthening bonds between those services, community groups, the general public and service users. We believe that the project will bring the community together and support of those of us within our community who are vulnerable. We can ensure that those in need are directly and efficiently targeted and provided with support wherever they are within Hull. The mobile hub will enable them to do this as opposed to being static in one place.
Employment and Skills: Through their work they look at the long-term plan towards independent living, education and employment, alongside this they offer their service users the opportunity to train as volunteers in order to develop their confidence, skills and abilities. They offer volunteering positions on the community hub which offers a focus towards employment in areas that genuinely interest them. Full training and ongoing support is given, with a positive pathway to employment for people who may not have had work experience for a number of years or at all. It has helped people to discover their strengths and develop new and existing skills set.
Social and Economic Regeneration: The project managed to increase volunteering potential for the homeless and the wider community through the mobile hub builds on their current ethos that positive community collaborative working promotes integration, cohesion and a stronger community bond.
Sustainability: The project has purchased a van for £5,686, this allows them to bring their work around a larger area on a sustainable basis. They currently service 11 people on a daily basis and have as many as 70 engagements each week giving them a constant purpose for their project.
Quotes: “Working on Herbie to help support isolated rough sleepers is really rewarding, being able to get to them in rural areas and offer help and support on location is really making a difference to their lives. I really enjoy the opportunity to be out on the road in the countryside helping hidden homelessness and I am looking to pass my driving test, so I can also drive the hub and help more.” - Dylan, Community Hub Volunteer
“Sleeping rough is hard, having no family and being on my own makes it harder. I have been out here since before winter to escape the drugs and danger in the city centre. I never expected people to care enough to come out here to help us and get us safe and that, they are proper diamonds, they have probably saved my life, hopefully I’ll be able to give back when I’m on my feet again in the future. It’s nice to see the lads in in the van.” - Anonymous, one of the customers
Website: www.hullhomeless .co.uk