Housing Justice UNLEASH email bulletin November 2006

Dear friends and colleagues,

Welcome to the November email news bulletin. This goes out about once a month with news and information of interest to people concerned with housing and homelessness action of all kinds.

Mailing info
Please forward this to people who may be interested.
If someone forwarded this to you and you would like your own copy, or if you want to unsubscribe at any time please let me know. NB Your email will not used for any other purpose or be forwarded to third parties.
mailto:a.murray@housingjustice.org.uk

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Starter Packs London Launch Conference
Annual Service Of Commemoration
Homeless Link launch "Ending Homelessness: from Vision to Action"
Winter Shelters Forum
Simon Community Street Count
UNLEASH Christmas Meeting
JOIN HOUSING JUSTICE!

Starter Packs London Launch Conference - tomorrow!
Starter packs are household items - pots and pans, cutlery, crockery, linen etc - given to people when they first move into a new tenancy. Churches and other community volunteers collect good quality used or new items, and then take the starter pack round as a welcome gift when someone first moves in. Starter pack schemes have been running successfully in Scotland and been shown to reduce repeat homelessness.

The first Starter Pack scheme in London will be starting up soon in Bromley .

This conference will be of particular interest to churches, community groups, hostel and resettlement workers, local authority tenancy sustainment teams, and all who are interested in solutions to homelessness.

Please contact me or my colleague Judith Maizel-Long for further info mailto:j.maizel-long@ housingjustice.org.uk
Date: Tuesday 7th November 3.00-5.30pm
Venue: St Paul's Robert Adam St

The Annual Service Of Commemoration for homeless people who have died in the last year
This service takes place at St Martin-in-the-Fields Church, Trafalgar Square this Thursday November 9th at 12 noon.
All are welcome.

Homeless Link launch "Ending Homelessness: from Vision to Action"
Homeless Link launched their new manifesto to end homelessness by 2020 at a parliamentary reception on 1st November. You can find further info, join Homeless Link or download a copy of the manifesto from here www.endhomelessness.org.uk
Don't forget that Housing Justice members who are not already members of Homeless Link can get a special membership rate to join Homeless Link - details below.

Winter Shelters Forum
Date: Monday 13th November at 6.30pm
Venue: The Manna Centre 6 Melior St Street, London SEQ 3QP
RSVP if you would like to come

Simon Community Street Count
Can you help? Volunteers are urgently needed to assist with the Simon Community independent street count of homeless people sleeping rough in central London.
The autumn count will take place through the night of 10th - 11th November. Volunteers will assemble on the Friday evening at our house in Camden and be given maps and instructions before being sent out in pairs across London.
If you can help please telephone the office on 020 7561 8270. If you are able to bring a car or even a bicycle please let us know.
Further details available from mailto:m.palframan@simoncommunity.org.uk

UNLEASH Christmas Meeting
This year's UNLEASH Christmas meeting will be a Theology workshop providing some space for Christian reflection on homelessness led by Chigor Chike of the Church Army. The afternoon will be on the theme of connecting with each another's humanity.
This will be followed by something to eat and drink and possibly some entertainments from 5.00 - 6.00pm.
DATE: Monday 4th December 3.00-6.00pm
VENUE: London Diocesan House, 36 Causton Street, London SW1P 4AU
Map http://www.london.anglican.org/ContactUs
Please RSVP to me if you would like to come

JOIN HOUSING JUSTICE!
UNLEASH is part of Housing Justice, the national voice of Christian action in the field of housing and homelessness. Housing Justice is active in over 35 communities around the country through Homelessness Sunday, work with churches involved in all kinds of action on homelessness and poor housing, CHAS Independent Housing Advice Centres, and Regenerate projects working to support tenant led regeneration.
Membership Benefits include:
Free training for your volunteers
Regular UNLEASH and Housing Justice Newsletters
Housing Justice Digest, the weekly email roundup of everything in the news about housing and homelessness
Invitations to speaker meetings, workshops and other events of interest
Supporting an organisation involved in policy and campaigning work on housing and homelessness, and the opportunity to contribute to shaping our work
Members of Housing Justice UNLEASH also get a special discount on Homeless Link membership.
Annual membership for organisations starts at £50 for local groups e.g. projects and churches. For individual supporting members any donation you would like to make in support of our work is entirely voluntary.
The Autumn UNLEASH quarterly newsletter has just been mailed to members, so if you would like to receive that you will need to join!
Membership forms are on the UNLEASH website, to email or post. See http://www.unleash.org.uk/htmdocs/join.htm
Or http://www.justhousing.org.uk/supportus.htm

Feedback welcome!
If you have a comment about any item or would like to submit something for inclusion in the November bulletin do get in touch.

best wishes,
Alastair

Alastair Murray
Coordinator

Mailing info
This email bulletin goes out free about once a month to people in the Housing Justice UNLEASH network. The aim is to provide a short informative read with news, resources and items of interest to people involved in action on housing and homelessness in London.

Please feel free to forward this to people you know or work with who may be interested.

If someone forwarded this to you and you would like to subscribe, or if you want to unsubscribe at any time please let me know.
NB Your email will not used for any other purpose or be forwarded to third parties.

Contact a.murray@ housingjustice.org.uk