News

Over the last few weeks, we've been pleased to host Johanne, a third year student from Norway. While she was here, Johanne worked in the community services team at St Martins and joined some teaching opportunities at the University of East Anglia. 

We spoke at the regional meeting of ‘Homes for Cathy’ in Norwich last month, a group of housing associations who work on strategies to end homelessness.

Unfurling the real stories behind those who have ended up homeless helps people to relate to the experiences they have been through, says Joe, 28, whose journey features in verbatim play Street Life.

The weekly singing group at our learning and development centre Under 1 Roof is gaining in popularity and each week everybody leaves the room with a smile on their face. Those participating have either been homeless, or at risk of homelessness and team members from St Martins join in too.

Understanding, hope, creativity and partnership between charities and organisations were the subject of discussion at Norwich Theatre Royal’s month-long focus on living with homelessness in the city.

Official figures for rough sleeping show that numbers in Norwich have fallen in the past year, with a reported 21 people sleeping rough in Norwich last November, significantly fewer than the recorded 30 in the previous year.

We are delighted to publish our Strategic Plan for St Martins, which shares our ambitions, plans and targets to take us through the next three years up to 2021.

To date St Martins has supported 12 people through the ‘street break’ initiative, with seven of these people being entrenched rough sleepers. Seven people who were supported by this initiative have now gone on to more permanent and secure housing.

We always see donations increase over the Christmas period and during the cold weather; a time when people empathise with the homeless. Two of our supporters, Alan and Adrian have used their resources to make a difference to local people in need.

Local supplier of storage materials Ese Direct have donated two roll containers, in partnership with their supplier, Palletower, which have already become invaluable to us in sorting and storing donations.