In the years prior to the Pandemic, we gifted brownies to our clients at Christmas from social enterprise, Rise Bakery. Rise Bakery was run by London-based charity Providence Row, who aim to tackle the root causes of homelessness. Unfortunately, during Covid, the team at Providence Row took the tough decision to close operations at Rise Bakery in order to focus on the immediate needs of their clients. Since the closure, we now donate to their cause as a seasonal gesture to replace sending Christmas cards or gifts to our clients.
With temperatures plummeting below freezing over past few months, Sadiq Khan was called on to activate the pan-London Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP)** to protect the homeless. Providence Row support this emergency initiative, providing shelter, food and healthcare out of their Dellow Centre in East London.
Rising living costs are also having a huge impact on how the charity operates, with figures from the Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN) revealing that the number of people sleeping rough in the Capital has jumped by 24% in the last year*.
We caught up with the team at Providence Row, to find out more about how their work has evolved since Covid, the changing needs of their clients and how the cost-of-living crisis has impacted the charity.
We spoke this time last year to talk about the impact COVID had had on your operations. Could you give us an update on how your services have developed over the last year?
At the beginning of 2022, as we came out of the Covid restrictions, we were able to restart most of our service delivery with a focus on meeting our clients’ most urgent needs including the provision of food, health and hygiene support and access to a warm place to stay. Some of our group activities are still on hold because our clients are more vulnerable, as they usually have existing complex health issues. So instead, we focused on our health fair events to provide vaccination programmes on site and other health and wellbeing support.
Our training courses such as our gardening and employment courses are running again and in February our catering course will start for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. We now provide outreach psychological support to our clients across three East London boroughs (Hackney, Tower Hamlet and City) and our hospital discharge service continues to operate so that homeless people who come out of hospital don’t end up back on the streets.
Prior to the Pandemic, you were supporting approximately 1200 people in a typical year. What does that figure look like now?
We have definitely seen an increase in demand for our services from September and October 2022. The cost of living has had a massive impact on people and we are seeing clients who would never have been at risk of homelessness before turn to us for support.
You have recently launched a Cost of Giving Appeal. Can you tell us more about this and where the funds raised will be allocated?
We launched this winter appeal to help us meet the increased demand from people for our support. We are seeing more and more clients at risk of homelessness as the cost of renting and of utility bills continue to increase. Also, as a charity our costs have increased making it harder for us to deliver our service and meet the demand. For example, the cost of food has gone up significantly and that has a real impact on our food delivery programmes onsite and offsite.
The funds raised from the appeal will be allocated to support people in crisis and meet their immediate needs: food, healthcare and shelter. More information can be found about our appeal at Cost of Giving Appeal | Providence Row.
How has the cost-of-living crisis affected how you operate as a charity and your ability to deliver services?
As mentioned, we are seeing an increased pressure on our services as more people are affected by homelessness and at the same time, we as an organisation are also affected by the higher cost of living, such as having to pay higher prices for food and utilities. We provide breakfasts and warm meals for our clients throughout the week and operate our own kitchen, so an increase in the cost of food and utilities has a big impact on us.
The Winter months are a critical time of year for the homeless, especially given the extreme weather conditions of the past couple of months. Christmas can also be a tipping point for those facing financial difficulties. Do you run specific support initiatives to support those who are vulnerable?
We continue to provide crisis support for people throughout the winter months to help clients with accessing food, healthcare and shelter. Our Dellow Centre was also used as emergency accommodation during the extreme weather period we had recently as part of the local Councils’ Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP)**.
Have you been able to reinstate your social enterprise Rise Bakery and other training schemes?
We are currently running a variety of training courses such as our gardening programme and our employability programme. In February, we will start our catering course again. Our training schemes help clients gain new skills and experience, as well as qualifications that will help them find a job. At the moment, we have paused our social enterprise activities, including Rise Bakery, but we hope to start the project again in the future if possible. More information about all our training courses can be found at Training and employment | Providence Row.
What plans do you have for the coming year?
The past couple of years have shown how crucial good and rapid access to healthcare provision is for our clients so we want to do more in that area. We will continue to have regular health fair events where people can easily access health and well-being support on site. We also have an ongoing needle exchange programme and our outreach psychological support brings counselling directly to clients on the streets. We want to continue to develop new initiatives to deliver even more support in term of health and wellbeing in the coming months.
How can we best support Providence Row?
As a charity we rely on donations and support from individuals and organisations to be able to continue to deliver our services and help people affected by homelessness so people can support us by donating or volunteering. For example, we have volunteering opportunities in our kitchen and reception and also to provide administrative support. We also work with companies and have volunteering opportunities for their staff to get involved in our gardening and kitchen challenges. We organise events throughout the year, at Christmas for example, that people can attend and our website has more information on how people can fundraise for us if they wish. To donate or to find more about volunteering with us please visit Get Involved | Providence Row.
Fabienne, many thanks for taking the time to talk to us and explaining how we can support your valuable work.
If you’re interested in finding out more about Providence Row and how you can get involved, you can contact them at getinvolved@providencerow.org.uk or visit their website. You can also follow them on:
* : Rough sleeping in London (CHAIN reports)
** : Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP)