How we Helped Crisis at Christmas

In December – just as we’ve done for the past few years – we opened our King’s Cross Centre to homeless people in London. In collaboration with the national charity Crisis, we turned our building into a place of refuge, safety and warmth for them, as one of the Crisis at Christmas London centres.

Crisis have been in touch to thank us for our support and we thought it would be nice to share their letter – it includes information about how many homeless people the centres supported and some of the things that Crisis do to help their guests over the Christmas holiday.

Together with your support and that of 12,696 volunteers, we welcomed more than 5,254 people to our centres across Britain. Crisis at Christmas in London welcomed 4,030 guests this year, this is a 12% increase from last year, with 11,672 volunteers attending shifts during the event.

You helped us to provide much needed health checks, food, shelter and specialist advice and to bring the centres to life with dance competitions, bingo and piano sing-a-longs that boosted confidence, giving people the breathing space and hope to rebuild their lives.

In London on Christmas day 1,634 of our guests were served 5,625 meals (1,760 breakfasts, 1,972 lunches and 1,893 dinners. As of the 28^th December we had served 37,201 meals.

From 23 – 28 December, guests had had access to doctors, nurses and pharmacists via the Healthcare clinics – the numbers are:
– Healthcare: 558
– Podiatry: 320
– Physio: 160
– Massage: 367

Here are the stats for the eye care team:
– Number of eye tests carried out: 302
– Number of specs ordered: 232
– Ready readers given: 102
– Number of referrals made: 32

The new year is now underway and it’s great to have personally seen guests visiting our year-round centres (Skylights). At our Skylight centres across the country we will offer a full package of housing and employment support, as well as education and training. Your support will continue to give hope to people who are homeless – and provide access to a route out of homelessness for good. 

We couldn’t do any of this without you – again thank you so much for your support this Christmas.

Hope starts with all of us and together we will end homelessness.

Crisis also sent a small thank you video, showcasing their work over the Christmas period:

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