St Mungo’s - Chestertons Foundation

United kingdom

St Mungo’s

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One of the UK’s largest providers of outreach services for the homeless

St Mungo’s provides a wide range of services to people who have no home to go, including accommodation, access to national health and criminal justice services and vocational training. They have also created specialist teams to support particular groups of people such as women and migrants.

Our Impact

1,380

Shifts

In a 3-year period, our help led to 1,380 extra outreach shifts at St Mungo’s

£200,000

Our donations help homeless people in the most direct ways possible

5,500

Hours

Funding a permanent role means more hours and people power to help the vulnerable

Our Initiatives for St Mungo’s

First Response

In 2019, the Chestertons Foundation fully funded a Volunteer Coordinator role to allow St Mungo’s to run its innovative First Response initiative.

First Response works by recruiting and training volunteers to work alongside Streetlink – the national rough sleeping referral service – and St Mungo’s London outreach teams, to find people who are sleeping rough. St Mungo’s is one of the largest providers of outreach services in the country.

Typically, over 74% of public referrals for people who are sleeping rough are not found, meaning that specialist outreach workers often waste time checking empty sites. Thanks to the efforts of First Response volunteers filtering out these referrals, St Mungo’s specialist outreach workers can use their time more effectively, ensuring the maximum number of people are supported.

Mathilde Dupouy, St Mungo’s First Response Coordinator

‘First Response has made a huge difference and wouldn’t have been possible without support from The Chestertons Foundation. Our fantastic First Response volunteers spend hours searching the streets looking for vulnerable people sleeping rough across London to make sure they are supported. Their incredible contribution means that our outreach teams can dedicate more time to offering people routes out of homelessness and towards recovery.’

Helping the homeless during the Covid-19 pandemic

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Chestertons Foundation redirected their funds from the First Response Initiative to supporting St Mungo’s staff in emergency hotels which were used to accommodate people who had been rough sleeping so they could safely isolate from the virus.

From March to December 2020, volunteers completed a total of 791 hours and helped over 4,000 people isolate safely.

Rumbi, a Rapid Intervention Worker for Westminster Outreach Team

‘I started working with First Response volunteers over a year ago and the volunteers really help me in my work… Instead of having to look for all the referrals, we delegate some to our First Responders who then provide us with the outcome for each referral they check. It’s a big deal for volunteers to give up their time, and I really commend them all.’

Outreach for St Mungo’s

We encouraged Chestertons estate agency staff across London to spend an evening shift with the St Mungo’s Outreach Team which involved walking the streets and speaking with people in need of shelter and support.

This not only provided additional resource for the charity but helped others to engage with vulnerable people and better understand the causes and challenges of homelessness. Many of the staff at Chestertons, including the CEO, have undertaken an outreach walk and subsequently approach fundraising with more passion and understanding than before.

Dominic Olins, First Response Volunteer

‘Volunteering with First Response is a great experience because you feel like you’re making a valuable contribution and your efforts have tangible results… As volunteers, we’re there to respond to a need and increase efficiency, so we must be able to go with the flow. If you are thinking about volunteering with First Response, I would say definitely do it!’

Real Lettings

Chestertons estate agency also supported St Mungo’s with its social lettings service, Real Lettings. This was set up in 2005 to help secure homes in the private sector for vulnerably housed and homeless people, helping them escape the cycle of homelessness and prepare them for the private rental sector.

Chestertons offices hosted coffee mornings for homeless people working with the St Mungo’s Real Lettings team to provide a setting for Q&A sessions, on-hand advice and other support.

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