Housing Justice UNLEASH email bulletin February 2007

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Welcome to the February edition of the Housing Justice UNLEASH news and info bulletin. There is a lot going on at the moment, so this is a bigger bulletin than usual. As always if you have comments or feedback on any item please let me know. Thanks

About this bulletin + subscribe/unsubscribe info
This bulletin is sent out about once a month offering what I hope is a useful 5 minute read, with links to further info and resources for people concerned about housing and homelessness in London. It is aimed particularly at churches, individuals and smaller projects providing help to homeless people. If you have an item of news or a need you’d like to advertise just drop me a line.

Feel free to cascade to colleagues or friends who may be interested. If you receive a copy in this way and you would like your own copy each month please email me. Also if you want to unsubscribe just let me know.
mailto:a.murray@housingjustice.org.uk
NB I will never share your email or personal details with other people or organisations without your express permission, and this email is always sent blind copy to prevent spam and viruses.

Scroll down for

Abbé Pierre
John Bird on TV this Friday
Homelessness Sunday reports
Volunteers needed to help count up and contact Soup runs
Winter Shelters Forum postponed
SHELTER new Directions Seminar
London Housing Foundation launches new web resource
Homes needed for Quaker Open Christmas Shelter and weekend dropin project
Web resource for learning and skills development
Chigor Chike's new book "Voices From Slavery"
BBC Radio London interview

Abbé Pierre
Abbé Pierre, founder of Emmaus and campaigner on behalf of homeless people (amongst other things) died last Monday. He was 94 and spent much of his life campaigning and organising practical responses to the needs of homeless people in France and worldwide. He will be much missed.
Here are links to some of his obituaries:
Guardian ,
Independent,
Times
and Telegraph

John Bird on TV this Friday
John Bird, founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Big Issue (and no slouch when it comes to homelessness campaigning himself..) is on Channel 4 this Friday February 2nd at 7.30pm. The programme is called "the Insider" and John will be making the case for better services for homeless people. My friend Chris Peacock of ASLAN is one of the people he talks to on the programme, so it should be well worth watching.

Homelessness Sunday reports
Many churches in London organised special services and events for Homelessness Sunday 2007. We are now gathering details about these events to post on the Homelessness Sunday website, so if your church did something to mark the day please tell us and especially send us any photos you took!
You can mail them to Ellen: e.byrne@housingjustice.org.uk
See Homelessness Sunday website www.homelessness-sunday.org.uk

Volunteers needed to help count up and contact Soup runs
Housing Justice UNLEASH is organising a week of counting up and contacting all the soup runs in London. The purpose is to encourage everyone to join the soup run forum, and to get an up to date, accurate figure of how many groups there are.
If you can spare an evening between Monday 26th February and Sunday 4th March please call me on 020 7723 7273 x 242 or email a.murray@housingjustice.org.uk
There will be a planning meeting on Wednesday 21st Feb at 6.30pm if you can make that.

Winter Shelters Forum
The next meeting of the winter shelters forum is postponed from 26th February. Watch this space for the new date or contact me if you would like to be informed.

London Housing Foundation launches new web resource
London Housing Foundation has launched a new website bringing together just about everything you could wish to know about outcomes.
The web site aims to provide a one-stop resource for homelessness agencies who are interested in taking an outcomes approach to their work.
It includes material to help agencies develop and deepen their understanding of the outcomes approach and includes the new Outcomes Star tool for measuring the outcomes of work with homeless people.
www.homelessoutcomes.org.uk
The main London Housing Foundation website is also well worth a visit, with information on their work including: advice on mergers, their grants and bursaries programme, the "Beyond a Helpline" initiative and the Andy Ludlow Awards, which they sponsor.
www.lhf.org.uk

SHELTER new Directions Seminar
New Directions in Street Homelessness - A good practice seminar
London, 29 March 2007 10.00am – 4.00pm
If you are wondering what the new thinking is around tackling street homelessness, this event is for you. Workshops on key issues and including projects in rural and urban locations. The event is to mark the publication of New Directions in Homelessness. Each delegate will receive a free copy.
See attached pdf for further info or to book

Homes needed for Quaker Open Christmas Shelter and weekend dropin project
If you know of a church hall or suitable space that Quaker Homeless Action might be able to use for their Open Christmas shelter please
email colin.rendall@btinternet.com
Also Rev. Donald Ewers of Samaritan Ministries (see www.smouk.org) has contacted me about finding church space in Westminster to operate a dropin for 2 hours on a Friday evening or Saturday or Sunday between 5pm and 8pm.
Any offers email Donald on ewersdonald@hotmail.com

Web resource for learning and skills development
A new website has been created to map and analyse projects in London that help disadvantaged groups overcome disengagement and discrimination through learning and skills development and preparation for employment.
'Disadvantage, Disengagement and Discrimination - the 3DsLondon' project - has mapped and analysed learning and skills development initiatives that support members of disadvantaged groups move from worklessness (unemployment or economic inactivity) to employment. Disadvantaged groups include
BME groups
refugees and asylum seekers
disabled people
16 - 19 year olds not in employment, education or training
older people 50+
lone parents
homeless people
travellers
ex-offenders
drug and alcohol misusers
people living in areas with high levels of deprivation
returners to the labour market
people made redundant
long term unemployed 12 months+
economic migrants
The 3DsLondon website summarises findings from a questionnaire survey from 362 provider organisations currently relating to more than 500 projects that have supported 358,123 participants from disadvantaged groups.
http://www.3dslondon.info/index.html

Chigor Chike's new book "Voices From Slavery"
Chigor is a long time friend and supporter of UNLEASH, and has written for the newsletter and led our recent workshop on Homelessness and Humanity. He currently lives and works in East London as a minister in the Church of England. He holds theology degrees from the Universities of Gloucestershire and Oxford.

2007 is the year in which we celebrate the act of parliament that outlawed the slave trade in 1807. Chigor has written a new book which tells the true stories of four Africans, drawing as far as possible on their own writings. The four individuals lived at different times and in different circumstances but their stories have a common central theme because each one was a victim of what is one of the greatest human rights abuses of all time, the African slave trade. Each became a free man, received an education and had the rare opportunity of recording and reflecting on their experiences for the wider world to read. We hear their stories unfold through their own narratives, although the sources of their words vary from comprehensive biography to collection of letters. Through the telling of their stories and helpful commentary by the author, himself an African, we can read "first hand accounts" of life as a slave and freed man in the 18th century. All had strong religious beliefs and we are able to hear their personal views and reflections on a range of topics including Christianity, God, humanity and the slave trade itself. Though the four men Sancho, Gronniosaw, Equiano and Cugoano all had a sense of God working in their lives and trials, their understanding of the nature of faith and their relationship with the spiritual varies considerably. The book reveals the black Africans as visionaries, and highlights their often underestimated contribution toward the abolition of slavery. Their stories resonate with contemporary issues in our world, posing questions about identity and culture in multi-ethnic communities in Britain today, how Christian faith enlightens debates about the place of religion in national life, and invites the exploration of the similarities between slavery and modern racism.

The book will be available shortly through http://www.authorhouse.co.uk/BookStore/ItemDetail~bookid~43289.aspx at £10.99.
It can also be ordered by phone on 0800 1974 150, or through Amazon and most bookshops in the UK at £12.99.

BBC Radio London interview
Finally, I was interviewed for Homelessness Sunday on BBC Radio London's Inspirit with Jumoke Fashola on Sunday morning. If you want to you can hear it on the "listen again" function until the weekend.
Go to www.bbc.co.uk/london, click on "Listen again" (on the right hand side), choose "Inspirit with Jumoke Fashola"
Fast forward about 1 hour 45 minutes and you'll hear the interview

best wishes,
Alastair

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