Our biggest fundraising event of the year, Simon’s Big Sleep Out, is back next week. This year, we’ve set an ambitious £50,000 fundraising target, our biggest yet.
(Can’t make it? You can still support us.)
While you’re getting ready to sleep out in Leeds City Centre on the 8th October (or you’re considering joining us!), we wanted to give you a glimpse into how the money you raise changes lives.
Support with no time limit
At Simon on the Streets, one of the things we’re proudest of is that our support is unlimited. We might work with a person for weeks, months or even years to get them off the streets. Some people are able to break the cycle on the first try. Others can take several attempts. Every individual’s journey looks different. But we believe that this long-term support is what helps someone break the cycle of homelessness for good.
Our support doesn’t just include the hours spent on outreach making first contact with people.
It’s carrying out our initial assessments, providing a listening ear, making emergency calls, maintaining detailed case notes back at our office, running background checks with other services and making the appropriate referrals, making necessary appointments, accompanying people to those appointments and advocating for people who don’t feel they can advocate for themselves. A single person breaking the cycle of homelessness takes hours of work and consistency from both sides.
In some cases where someone has been let down by other services, it can take weeks just to build up that initial trust and relationship. We might meet someone several times for a coffee or a sandwich before they’re ready to take things forward.
Your donations are what allow our team to create and maintain these relationships, and, ultimately, change lives. Something as small as our team being able to take someone for a coffee and warm meal can be the start of a life-changing – even life-saving – journey.
The funds you raise mean we can show up when we say we’re going to show up, which is hard to put a value on. You make it possible for us to engage with people who may be at the point of giving up hope.
Securing a safety net
Homelessness affects all of us. It really could happen to anyone. One missed payday, one lost job, one major relationship breakdown, one life-changing illness or injury – none of us is immune.
When you support Simon on the Streets, you ensure we can be there for someone if the worst happens. Because if homelessness happened to you, your friend, your loved one or your colleague, you’d want to know someone was there to help them get their life back. You’d want to know they weren’t alone.
While we hope that one day, no one will experience homelessness, your donations mean we can be there for the community – and potentially for you – as long as we’re needed.
Creating long-term change in the community
By ensuring our future as a charity, you make it possible for us to work with other incredible services in the local area.
Together, we’re helping individuals rebuild their lives after experiencing homelessness – whether they’re survivors of domestic abuse, have fallen on hard financial times or are trying to overcome an addiction. Not only are we providing that emergency support in the short-term, but every single other service we work with is also working fiercely to create long-term positive change for the community as a whole.
Your donations make it possible for us to be at the forefront of groundbreaking and life-saving research.
Hear it from the people who’ve lived it
We’re always incredibly touched to hear from the people we’ve supported. Many of them go on to remain involved in the charity in some way, whether that’s by taking part in our fundraising events, volunteering or even training in support work themselves.
For others, they’re ready to put their experiences behind them. Whatever they decide, we’re just proud that they can move forward with their lives with confidence.
“This is the first time I’ve properly interacted with services. You’ve stuck around even when things got hard.”
“Having my own space that was safe and warm provided me with instant security.”
“Simon on the Streets showed me I’m worth something.”
“They didn’t give up on us when we’d given up on ourselves. They saw something in us that we didn’t see.”
This community understands that homelessness isn’t an individual problem; it’s all of our problem. And it’s only together that we can truly bring it to an end. Please help us secure our future as a charity by continuing to support and donate to Simon on the Streets.
Thank you.