I spend half my weekends in a shop. I’m not spending money but I’m also not earning any.  Much of the time I’m sat at a till serving customers, tidying the shop, price checking new products and drinking lots of tea. The rest of the time I’m sorting donations, pricing up books and circulating stock.

Just lately, I’m stepping up to a kind of lead volunteer when I’m there. I don’t open up – I’m usually late so someone else does that part – but in addition to the above, I process any refunds, count up the previous day’s takings to make sure they tally up, prepare Monday’s floats, prepare the remaining cash to go to the bank, empty the tills at the end of the day, do the lock up, deal with any queries the other volunteers can’t… I’m sure there are other things I’ve forgotten.

It would be reasonable to ask why I do all this.

The answer is that I get more from doing all of that than they get from me. Here’s some examples of what I gain:

• I get to be around people. For five days a week I work (paid this time.) I’m almost always sitting alone in a room of my house occasionally talking to faces on a screen. It’s just not the same as interacting with actual physical people.
• I see immediate results from what I do. Working for Listen Up! and Groundswell gives results but it’s harder to see the impact of what you’ve done – sometimes it can be months before you can see that you’ve done something well. However, changing a display, serving someone, chatting with someone about a book they’ve picked out… I can immediately see the impact I’ve had.
• I get first pickings of donations. I rarely get my hands on discounted (sometimes free) books in my weekday role. I really like books.
• People make me cups of tea. Until I teach my cat how to do that, I’m afraid it isn’t happening when I’m working from home.
• Books. Just books. I really like books. Books.
• Tat. Don’t underestimate how much you can laugh at some of the things you see in donations. Tat is treasure.
• The variety of people. With my colleagues and our brilliant volunteers, there is a lot of similarity amongst us. We are all passionate about homelessness, for instance. When I volunteer I spend my time with a retired pub inspector, a retired translator, a former factory worker, someone who used to babysit a musician’s children, a stamp and coins expert, a book trader… most of these people have never really thought about homelessness outside of talking to me, and I’ve never really considered many of their backgrounds. I learn lots of random information I never realised I wanted to know.

There are downsides. I don’t know what I think about the charity I volunteer for. I applied for the location and the books. I stay for the above. The charity themselves… I think different things at different times. Unlike my paid role. I love what Listen Up! and Groundswell do.

I suppose between the two I have balance. I get different things from each role and need both in equal measure. I couldn’t do shop work all the time because I’m not passionate about it – it’s something I enjoy but if I did it all the time, I’d likely need to volunteer doing something like what I’m paid for to stop myself going mad[der].

Volunteering has always been a way for me to carve out time for myself, doing something I enjoy enough to spend a day or two a week immersed in it, but not enough to want to spend 40 hours a week doing it. It’s a place to choose my commitments, my responsibilities, my hours. A place to be myself without considering my place as a cog within a larger machine.

Volunteering is priceless for me. And that is why I do it for free.

You’re sitting on a sleeping bag outside CostCutter – as was a young man I spoke to recently – in the cold, in the dark, it’s midwinter. Sick, scared and alone. What do you need? At the very least a phone. But is it enough? Are the services you require accessible, do they exist in a meaningful way?  

Possession of a smart phone for many people in precarious housing or on the street is a lifeline. This has been recognised. Rick Henderson, Chief Executive of Homeless Link notes, “Digital literacy can help to grow people’s confidence and independence, and become an incredibly empowering influence on their lives.” 

Homeless Link have created a valuable resource for organisations and individuals stating, “Despite the huge growth in ownership of smartphones, people who experience homelessness – particularly those who sleep rough and/or have multiple needs – are often socially and digitally excluded. They can face barriers to getting online and using online services.” 

Their Online Centres Network “made up of over 5,000 grassroots organisations” via an interactive map. But, you guessed it, is accessed online. The Online Centres Network is designed to “tackle digital and social exclusion by providing people with the skills and confidence they need to access digital technology.” 

Back in August 2020 The Guardian reported Crisis was planning, in response to the pandemic, “to hand out 2,500 handsets and data packages in England, Scotland and Wales after Covid-19 exacerbated an existing digital deficit faced by many homeless people with the lockdown of walk-in services including council offices and job centres.” 

It continued, “While thousands of homeless people were housed in temporary accommodation during lockdown in a government initiative … without adequate further protection people risk being forced back on the streets or into crowded shelters.” 

By “further protection” read funding. Yes funding. I’m sick of hearing privileged people who have no idea of the price of a sandwich, who don’t have to juggle eating and heating, say, “You can’t just throw money at the problem”. No, that’s right. That is just the beginning of the process. Funding means staff training,  longer opening hours, access. 

Furthermore figures suggest the Everyone In scheme barely put a dent in the street homeless problem.  According to the CHAIN Annual Report 20/21 there were more people sleeping rough than ever before and more of them new to rough sleeping.  

While it’s obvious digital literacy and access are vital, particularly for obtaining Universal Credit, I’m dubious about the – tech solves all – rhetoric which is levelled at pretty much everything from the Climate Emergency to women’s safety on the streets. The changes required are cultural and systemic. There’s little use to a phone if the services are simply not there or so hard to reach they might as well not be.  

Yes there is a “digital deficit” but there is also an immense, looming and long standing deficit in provision of housing, health services, social care, mental health services during a well documented cost of living crisis.  

The NHS has been underfunded for decades. The overlong waiting times for operations are not just a result of the pandemic. In the summer I was sent to A&E by my GP with suspected shingles. I was assessed as “urgent care” and still had to wait over six hours before I saw a doctor who confirmed the diagnosis. That said staff were thorough and compassionate. 

Even making a GP appointment is not easy. At my surgery the only way to get an appointment is to phone at 8.00am. One is put on hold in a queue. Last time I was 15th in the queue. After about 35 minutes I finally got to speak to a receptionist. The time before I made the mistake of calling at 8.07am and was 25th in the queue. At some point I hung up.  

We’re living at a time with so many messaging apps, email, ubiquitous social media we are more connected than ever before in human history and yet, arguably, have never been less connected in a real and meaningful way.  Face to face, together, in the same moment. Even then it’s often behind a mask which doesn’t quite hide a smile but conceals more subtle expressions.  

That said, if I were to say “data is life” it might sound like a strap line to one of the dystopian fictions I’m so fond of. But actually, for some people, like the homeless man I met recently, with only credit on an android, it’s not far from the truth.  

Anne is a writer, poet and housing activist: seedsandfuses.wordpress.com/blog

The Vagrancy Act of 1866 makes it a criminal offence to beg or to be homeless on the streets of England and Wales. The law was passed in the summer of 1824 (197 years ago) and it was originally intended to deal with a situation far from the reality of street homelessness in the present day.

The majority of the original Vagrancy Act from 1824 remains in force in England and Wales. In 1982 the entire act was repealed in Scotland by the civic government. I researched this information as I was unclear on what the Vagrancy Act covers.

I have experienced homelessness and have been arrested many times for begging under the Vagrancy Act and it has not benefited me and my future. I was seventeen years old and street homeless, but instead of being supported by the police and being signposted to charities who could have helped me and supported me into accommodation, I kept on being criminalised for having nowhere to live.

I was also not receiving any benefits at the time as I was under the age of eighteen.

My punishment was having to spend a night in the cells, then go to the magistrates court to appear in front of a judge, which for a seventeen young girl was scary. I felt like I shouldn’t be there – bad people go to court for murder and rape offences – I was there for being homeless. It didn’t make sense.

I tried to get a job but because I had been arrested so many times for the same offence, I had to disclose my past to prospective employers. It was a past I wanted to forget because it was shameful.

Surprisingly I never got the jobs I applied for.

I find the Vagrancy Act to be  unsupportive and it should be axed. It is cruel and inhumane.

In 2022 they pledge to end homelessness but they will stop people getting into employment if they continue to use the Vagrancy Act on them when they are at rock bottom in their life.

I’m Karen from Manchester it’s great to meet you all. I’m a recovering alcoholic, I experienced a short time of homelessness many years ago, I’m a survivor of domestic abuse and I’m happy to say I’ve come through it all. I volunteered at a local Alcohol and Substance Abuse centre where I qualified as a Peer Mentor. I now care for my elderly dad who is housebound and I feel blessed to be able and well enough to do this. I hope as part of this Community Reporting team our stories can contribute to making a difference to homelessness and health inequalities and shine a light on any other injustices we come across.

Alone I walk alone along the crowded cobblestones,

 I tip my hat, but no-one notices me stare out,  

but no-one see me, I hold my hand out,  

but no-one grasps it, I scream aloud,  

but no-one hears me, Is it deemed for me to be alone  

Always looking from the outside in,  

A ghost amidst the masses,  

I would jump in the river,  

but I wouldn’t make a ripple  

I stop and watch and ponder, 

I am the only one alone I stop and think,  

then find that my brain has left my mind  

I am just alone, Charlie of the past.

This picture is by one of our reporters who choses to report anonymously. This reporter has previously talked about their connection to a group of cats and how this has supported them through very difficult times. This picture, bathed in shadow is a powerful way of communicating feelings that came up after our reporter was forced to move without a group of cats with which they had formed a strong bond. 

Read all of ‘s articles

This post mentions drug taking. 

In this piece I talk about what this project has done for me and the potential it offers reporters to share stories they’ve kept locked up or have shared in the past and not received a positive reaction. Please excuse my nervous use of the phrase ‘you know’…We all know, I guess, we just get sidetracked sometimes by the need to survive and some of the negative stuff we hear on the news.

Over the last few days, I’ve been talking to reporters about exactly what they’ve got from this community journalism project thus far. And, you know, words like therapeutic, stigma, professionalism, connection, identity, impact on policy and perceptions, skills, self-esteem came up. It’s been amazing for me to talk to these reporters over the last few days. I know from personal experience just how much you can get from these projects. You know, I’ve come from someone who was using, sticking a needle in my arm five times a day to someone who is in full time employment.  

And you know, I’ve got a job that I love, and I think I do a lot of good with that job. So it’s been a fantastic journey for me and I’ve been talking to reporters and they are on that same journey. I can see that and you know, somebody talked to me about how their confidence has been bolstered, you know, just what it’s done for their self-esteem, this project. You know, someone else talks about the professionalism of the site and the way that reports are presented to the public with the backing of a charity, which means people listen to us, you know, they they actually take notice. They don’t, you know, just see it. And, you know, do that tick box thing – ‘oh there’s a homeless person.’  

And someone else mentioned the presentation of the site. You know, the upbeat photographs, the way we present, people experiencing homelessness as human beings.  

There is no such thing as a ‘homeless person’. They are just people who happen to be homeless. And that’s what you get from talking to the people involved in this project. They seem to love it [this project], to a person. And, for various reasons I just wanted to – it’s a short little piece this – but just to say how much people are getting from this project in so many different ways.  

Also, the impact on policy was an important thing, and it was the the effect on the public perception of homelessness. What people want to do is change the way that society talks about people experiencing homelessness, so that they’re just seen as human beings, you know? And I think that is the core thing about this project, that people want to do, also changing policy, of course, but that is changing the way people think about us. Yeah, that’s all for now. Thanks.

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Join us: We see the the hub as the start of a movement of people, all united in the belief that elevating our voices will challenge stereotypes and help decision makers end homeless health inequalities. Join us by signing up to our mailing list – the Listen Up! mail out.

My mentor Steve asked me what I thought  Volunteering would do for me ? How it felt being part of something new and did I have any expectations from this role ? Well I feel very honoured to be part of the  Groundswell team especially at the beginning of such a new and exciting campaign. I’ve  had a really warm welcome from everyone and feel  involved in The Big Launch on 16th February .

Reporting and research will be a new challenge for me, one of which I’m looking forward to , it’ll definitely give me a sense of purpose. I like to keep busy and learning new skills either through hands on or training sessions will be really interesting. I’ve got a good feel about the next 3 years, I like Groundswells commitment in tackling homeless health inequalities and in doing so trying to educate people about this very real problem.

If we can change the preconception and stereotyping of homelessness then maybe just maybe we can start to individualise and begin to treat our fellow human beings with the respect they deserve and the healthcare that they are entitled to.

I suppose my only expectations are to receive the guidance, training, regular meetings  and feedback I need to develop as a reporter and my promise to Groundswell is that I will give each theme my very best.
So in a nutshell my volunteering role is like a breath of fresh air to me , it’s going to be interesting , fun , maybe a bit demanding at times , rewarding and cathartic . Thank You for giving me this opportunity it means so much .

Photo by Mat Amp Instagram @matamp67 

When I was asked to be part of this project I was really excited. I had no expectations and really no idea what I was doing apart from writing in general, which I’m passionate about .

I wanted to share some stories of how it has been being a women who has experienced homelessness, substance abuse and violence and how I have overcome my difficulties to  get to the place I’m at now .

I hadn’t really thought about what I would get out of this project but I have already got a lot. I realise I now have a voice and a platform to share my experiences with passion.

When I write , I write about stuff I have never shared with anyone, which is a form of therapy and I find it very therapeutic. I have met like minded people like myself who I never knew existed on this planet !!

It has also given me confidence after being isolated for so long . Sometimes I think I’m not good enough to be writing as I think everyone else’s writing just looks better worded than mine but I have a great mentor who tells me that good writing  comes from the heart and that’s what people want to read .

We all have challenges we go through in life and my own personal theory is we are always learning no matter how old we are ! I have got so much out of this project so far and really hope to blossom and learn as much as I can whilst involved . I am excited to finally have a VOICE. – one that I’ve never before thought I would have the opportunity to share.

11th August 2022

I was in Manchester City Centre today the 11th August it was unbearably hot reaching 32° by 3pm. This is global warming and its starting to scare me now because we don’t know how bad it’s going to get. As I walked through Manchester in my cool summer clothes, hair scraped up in a bun, cold bottle of water in hand, factor 30 and a sun hat for protection, I saw a guy strewn across the pavement he was either asleep or passed out. He was literally baking to death in the direct sunlight and there was nothing I could do other than leave a bottle of water next to him.

Fast forward four hours. I’m lay on my bed absolutely exhausted, I’ve got a fan on full blast, pint of ice-cold water next to me, shorts and t-shirt on and I’m feeling very uncomfortable. Nothing is making a difference it’s like an oven in here and I’m one of the lucky ones. I can’t get that man on the street out of my head, it must have been hell out there today and it’s going to be the same for the foreseeable.

What has been put in place to keep people on the streets safer especially in these extreme weather conditions. I know in winter places open up to offer warmth, shelter and food, we distribute sleeping bags and quilts, but what’s being done to help during this heat wave? I wonder if that guy woke up?

12th August 2022

Another scorching day, decided to stay home. The only time I felt cool was when I opened the fridge door so I decided to clean it, kill two birds I thought. Can’t get that guy I saw on the streets yesterday out of my mind, keep wondering if he’s still alive? What could I have done to have got him the help he needed? Research it!!!! Is that not part of your voluntary role? I can be so blonde at times.

I read about a great charity called Street Link which covers England and Wales it’s a website, mobile phone app and telephone service. I found loads of information on how they run things and what to do if you have any concerns about people on the streets especially during this heatwave. There’s an app you can download and if you see someone on the streets who you feel needs help you can send an alert which will connect you to the relevant services who will send support out to them and hopefully offer temporary accommodation. I know it’s a quick fix and not the solution we’d like, but I wish I’d been aware of this yesterday and maybe I could have helped that poor man.