M&S Sears Solihull

We are a not for profit organisation based in Birmingham provided a weekly outreach to support the homeless & those in need in our city. We provide hot & cold drinks, food, clothing, underwear, toiletries, bedding & any other essential items. As a not for profit group we rely solely on donations & fundraising to carry out the work we do & have a strong group of volunteers who support us every Tuesday evening in the city centre.

SUPPORTED ACCOMMODATION St Basils Bromsgrove scheme provides accommodation with 24 hour on-site support to 15 young men and women aged 16-23 who have a local connection and/or care leavers. The accommodation provided comprises of a mixture of studio and one bedroom flats and also has a training kitchen, communal spaces and an ICT room. The surplus donations collected are ambient foods suitable for storing in a communal area. The items are on display for our residents to help themselves. We also use some tinned items from the surplus collections to hand out to residents if they are struggling financially or if their benefits have not been paid. LEARNING, SKILLS AND WORK The majority of the young people we work with are under the age of 21 or extremely vulnerable. We teach young residents life skills such as cooking and budgeting so that when they move on they will be able to live independently and have the confidence to make a success of their lives. Once young people are stable we support them to do job searches, update their CVs and help them access placement or volunteering opportunities in the local area. If you can help provide a paid or unpaid placement to a local young person please get in touch.

Through providing emergency food to local people in crisis, we aim to provide a breathing space to help them deal with our clients' underlying issues. We provide food but equally important to us is the provision of support and care for our clients' situations. This may range from making appointments for our Money Advice Worker with help for debt and money management, job search and benefits queries; to referrals to our Domestic Abuse Support Worker, our Carer Support Project and Resource Centre for Asylum Seekers and refugees. Every item of food has been donated by the local community and we are supported by a small army of volunteers. We also provide bread, pastries and some fresh fruit and vegetables when available in addition to toiletries, household products and pet food.