Pret Bristol, Victoria Street

To relieve the charitable needs of homeless adults, or adults at risk of homelessness, in bristol by the provision of food, drink, replacement clothing, toiletries, companionship, advice, signposting and practical and emotional support

We are a supported accommodation in the heart of Bristol (BS1) that provides temporary housing with medium to high support for up to 53 young people commissioned by Bristol City Council. Our residents are aged between 16 and 23 and are often in crisis when they are referred to us having left foster care or their family home abruptly often never lived on their own before. Bristol Foyer provides housing related support to equip young people with the necessary skills to thrive in life such as cooking/budgeting/employment/education/access to therapy and aims to support young people to build a real sense of self-worth and pride in themselves before they move on. We work closely with community partners to ensure young people have all the support they need when they leave here to aim high in life and manage 'adult life' and the responsibilities that come with that. We are currently partnered with Empire Gym who deliver boxing therapy sessions at the Foyer, we have the Cause who are a community grass roots organisation and deliver weekly sessions to the young people here, Bristol Drugs Project have started outreach sessions at the Foyer to enable a full service of support to young people that live here. LUSH supports us with donations of toiletries to ensure those who come here in crisis can feel fresh and clean in themselves. Key4Life supports young people at the Foyer who have been criminally exploited and runs a great programme supporting young people with employment support tailored for the young people. Saint Nicholas Church supports us during Christmas and Easter with hampers for the residents that live here to ensure they have Christmas presents and Easter eggs. We are very proud of the support we have been pulling together to ensure that the young people who live here feel like it's a home. Our next aim is to have food available in the kitchens for young people to help themselves to whenever they are hungry. Most 16/17/18/19 yr olds when they are hungry open the fridge in their home and make themselves some food without thinking. Our 16/17/18/19 yr olds that live here have to carefully budget and use food banks to support themselves with no treats. Any support with food donations to ensure their home feels like a home should feel would be greatly appreciated.

Borderlands is a small, community based, registered charity run almost entirely by volunteers. We run a Drop-in for refugees and asylum seekers. The Drop-in offers a range of free services including distributions of food, toiletries and clothing; a hot meal; English language classes; signposting; reading / translating letters or official documents; advice and support from other members and volunteers; befriending and socialising; board games and table tennis. Our work is not easy to fundraise for as public opinion is increasingly anti-immigration and many sections of the media fail to correctly present the plight of asylum seekers and refugees seeking safe sanctuary from regimes or situations where their lives and freedoms are under serious threat. Our aim is to support asylum seekers, refugees and people with immigration issues, especially those who have been trafficked into the UK, because they are a very impoverished, vulnerable, traumatised and marginalised group. They are forbidden by law to work. We promote social inclusion by offering practical help and relieving the needs of our members who are socially and economically excluded through empowering them to integrate into the local community and take control of their lives – this is a huge challenge given the problems that many of them face. Naturally our members want to live a valuable life and contribute to the community but they need help to achieve this which we are privileged to play a small part in them achieving for themselves.