91Èȱ¬

My name is Julia Bradbury. You might know me from programmes like Countryfile and my series on walking, but I recently took part in something very different: a documentary for Sport Relief on 91Èȱ¬ ONE to highlight the plight of the homeless.

I spent a week sleeping rough in London and in that time I saw, and experienced first-hand, the desperate situations people find themselves in, and how isolating it can be.

Being homeless is a lonely, frightening and often dangerous experience and it left me determined to try and help.

Church Housing Trust is a charity that helps homeless people to rebuild their lives. They aim to give homeless people the support and life skills they need to live independently by providing funding to homelessness projects across England.

One of these is ‘Street Buddies’, based in Westminster, an area which has the highest number of rough sleepers in the UK. Volunteers who were once rough sleepers themselves help other homeless people to come off the streets permanently. They provide a second chance to isolated rough sleepers who have stopped trusting professional services, and through their example give them a sense of hope for the future. In return, the volunteers build their own life skills and confidence.

Some Buddies can also train to become full-time support workers. They can build a career and use their unique understanding of life on the street to really make a difference.

There is no government funding available for ‘Street Buddies’, so Church Housing Trust has committed to funding the programme for the next three years. Your donations will help to keep them going, and also enable them to provide more traineeships across the country. With your support they can help homeless people to rebuild their lives. 

Before he became homeless, Dave was serving in the army and paying the mortgage on his flat in Liverpool. But he struggled to cope with memories of a childhood in care and quit the army due to depression. He worked as a scaffolder but the depression became worse and he ended up homeless in London. He soon developed an addiction to drugs and for nearly eight years he lived rough or in hostels.

Dave finally decided to turn his life around, and get clean. He says ‘I was outside of society for so long, so that was my main motivation to start fitting back into society’.

He currently has a paid traineeship funded by Church Housing Trust at a hostel in Westminster where he helped set up a breakfast club. He says 'Church Housing Trust has given me this opportunity to be employed and I’m all about giving it to the next person’. 

Dave is also a Street Buddy and is passionate about the peer approach - formerly homeless people helping those currently living on the streets. Having past experience of sleeping rough gives Street Buddies the ability to empathise and to communicate with long–term homeless people on their own terms and help them rebuild their lives.

Trisha was homeless for ten years. As a teenager, she lived at home with her parents and two sisters. But family life was fraught with arguments and Trisha ended up leaving home. From the age of 17 she lived on the streets, sleeping in doorways, begging and living in and out of hostels. As she got older she realised that it wasn't the life she wanted. She wanted to get married, have kids and get a job.

Trisha was introduced to the Street Buddies programme after getting clean and training as a volunteer in Westminster. With the help of Church Housing Trust, she has since completed a 10 month paid traineeship in a hostel and is now working with people with mental health issues.  She says ‘Back then my life was chaotic, but now it's changed…. I have a life, a new home, a new partner and I’m very happy’.

Richard had a comfortable lifestyle, living in a nice apartment with his wife and three children, to whom he was a full-time dad. Everything changed when his marriage broke down. Suddenly he found himself on the streets with no job and no money.

He and his wife would try to keep up the normality during the day, when he would take care of his children, but he would sleep in a night centre or out on the streets. It was a difficult experience which opened his eyes to the situations homeless people face. Richard managed to turn things around and is renting a place to live for the time being.

As a result of the help he received during that time, Richard decided that he wanted to give something back. He's been volunteering as a Street Buddy and is determined to turn his negative experience into something positive for others. He says ‘the truth of the matter is that I couldn't have done it without lots of people’s help, time and encouragement’.  Richard is now about to start a paid traineeship in a hostel for people with mental health problems.