Outreach
Outreach – heading out onto the streets to find and talk to rough sleepers – is a vital part of our work. We have to reach out, establish trust and offer help wherever we can.
Reach Out to the Community regularly works with partner agencies such as Manchester City Council’s Rough Sleepers Support Team; Change, Grow, Live ( The Drugs and Alcohol Service); Adult Social Care; the Homeless Mental Health Team and partners from the Manchester Homelessness Partnership.
It is important to carry out regular outreach to engage with people sleeping out. Many we meet won’t accept accommodation straight away. If you’ve suffered trauma, or been badly let down by the authorities in the past, it’s very hard to accept help or trust anyone going forward. It’s essential that we take a consistent approach and build relationships based on trust.
Our team attend weekly Partnership Outreach Meetings with outreach teams from across Manchester. This is where we discuss how we can help any people we’re particularly concerned about: we work collectively, sharing knowledge and skills, to put a plan in place that’s tailored to individual needs.
Did you know that many rough sleepers go to Manchester Airport? We do outreach work there and attend fortnightly meetings to discuss homelessness issues. We also attend monthly strategic meetings with our partners across the region.
As well as the face-to-face contact that outreach work allows us to have, it’s also important in that it helps us to keep count of the types and numbers of rough sleepers we see, thereby giving a clearer picture of the scale of the problem in the area.
Our CEO is also a panel member for Real Change MCR (a scheme that provides micro funds to 20+ homeless charities in Manchester to help homeless individuals to get of the streets). She is also Co-Chair of Chorlton Traders Association, leading on street art, planting and clean-ups in the town.
As well as the outreach work, Reach Out to the Community runs an emergency food bank, providing much-needed help to people referred to us by partner organisations. We have a fantastic team of volunteers who help to deliver food parcels and donations every week.
Reach Out to the Community is a small independent charity and is a mainly volunteer-led organisation. Most of our funding comes from our charity shop in Chorlton and we depend on donations of goods and money to keep our services going. We are always looking for volunteers, either to work in the shop, to help with fundraising or a number of other roles. If you can help, please get in touch.