Food Parcels

24 June 2019By homelessstreetangels

So aswell as the food we take out every Thursday on our outreach we are also always desperate for items for our food parcels-to some of these guys these can be life saving.

When we manage to help our guys get off the streets they have to get used to living in a home. So we always like to set them up with most of the items they would need to fill their cupboards in the bathroom and kitchens and help them really get settled into their home.

Also once in their homes they might be struggling from time to time so that’s another reason our food parcels can really help.

For these, we rely on the kindness of others to donate the much needed items that we put together that really do make all the difference.
We appreciate all donations and are always in need of donations for food parcels that include:
Tins of food
Dried items
Biscuits and crackers
Pot noodles
Packets of food
Puddings
Cereal
Crisps
Dilute juice
Sauces
Toiletries
Cleaning products
Toilet rolls etc
Even if people were to buy just one item on every shop it would soon add up #homelesstreetangels

Welcome back to the Homeless Street Angels Blog! As you know from the last blog post about the Yorkshire Choice Awards, we had been nominated for Local Fundraiser of the Year and one of our younger volunteers was nominated for Young Achiever of the Year. One of our Co-Founders Becky Joyce was also nominated for Most Charitable woman of the year and the outstanding chairty award at Simply Ladies inc. Also last year Becky won Volunteer of the year at the Yorkshire Choice Awards!

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We won!

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Local Fundraiser of the Year – Homeless Street Angels

At the Yorkshire choice Awards, Homeless Street Angels won the award of Local Fundraiser of the Year! None of this would be possible without our amazing team of volunteers and also all the amazing donations we get all of the time!

Young Achiever of the Year – Naomi Joyce

At the Yorkshire Choice Awards one of our younger volunteers, Naomi Joyce, was nominated for Younger Acheiever of the Year. Unfortunatley she didn’t win, but she was a finalist. In our eyes Naomi will always be a winner, she does lots of work fundraising at school for Homeless Street Angels, helping her mum cook alot of the weekly meals we take out on the streets every thursday and also comes out to feed the homeless occaisonally. She is only 11 years old!

Woman of the Year – Becky Joyce

At the Simply Ladies Inc. Awards, One of our Co-Founders was nominated to win Most Chairtable Woman of the Year and Outstanding Chairty Awards. Although Becky finished as a finalist in both these catergories she didn’t win. However, the people running the show had organised for becky to be the special winner of an award that hadn’t been up for nominations or votes… WOMAN OF THE YEAR! Our whole team believe this is an amazing award and Becky was the perfect lady to win! She works tirelessy to help the homeless, going in between jobs to visit them , take them to appointments and stock up there houses with furniture and food when they are rehoused. She also makes 80 meals a week to take out every thursday! I could sit and list all the amazing things that becky does but I would be here all day!

Without everyones continued support and amazing donations we would not be able to help the homeless the way we do! We would like to thanbk everyone for there help in getting to where we are and we hope you carry on this journey with us!

An Average City Centre Thursday Night

25 February 2019By homelessstreetangels

The days leading up to Thursday night
On the week leading up to a Thursday night, there is lots of preparation to be done…
First things first, we have lots of generous donations to go pick up from people. We then take these donations and sort them into different bags ready for Thursday nights. We use large IKEA bags to separate the categories of clothing such as women’s tops, men’s jeans, blankets, dog coats and lots more.

On Wednesday night begins the prep of the meals, we take out around 100 meals a week, so that’s a lot of prep.

The Day of Outreach
Each Thursday we have lots of work to do before we go to the city centre in the evening.
One of our volunteers makes 20 litres of hot drinks every week. She makes hot chocolate with hot milk, and the homeless love this and we run out of quickly every week. She also makes coffee, tea and brings extra water for things such as cuppa soups and pot noodles.
A few of our volunteers help to make the food as we have lots of meals to make, so all the cooking has to happen on Thursday to ensure it’s nice and hot when it gets to the homeless.

A few of our volunteers help to make the food as we have lots of meals to make, so all the cooking has to happen on Thursday to ensure it’s nice and hot when it gets to the homeless.

Once all the food and drinks are prepped and packed its time to pack up the cars and vans full to the brim with clothes, toiletries, food and much more

On the night
At around 7pm the team begin to arrive at the meeting point, with cars full of donations. We unpack the cars into trolleys on the street ready to set off around town. We also pack sandwiches, cold drinks, crisps and snacks into snack bags so they are easy to give out to our homeless friends.

We have started to get some of the homeless coming and waiting for us at the meeting point, all excited for their hot food and drinks.
Once we have served all the homeless at the meeting point, we begin our regular route around the city centre.
The homeless begin to know where we are going to be at what time and we have regular people come to see us at certain places. This means we have begun to build good relationships with some of them and learn more about their pasts.

By the end of the night we have usually run out of all food, hot drinks, sleeping bags, tents and much more.

Yorkshire Choice Awards

6 February 2019By homelessstreetangels

Last year, Becky Joyce, one of the directors of Homeless Street Angels was nominated and won the award for Volunteer of the Year at Yorkshire Choice Awards.

This year as a charity we have been nominated for Local Fundraiser of the Year at the Yorkshire Choice Awards

Also Becky’s daughter, Naomi Lister Joyce has been nominated for Young Acheiver of the year

We would really appreciate if as many people could vote for both Homeless Street Angels and Naomi Lister Joyce in the Yorkshire Choice Awards.
Simply follow the link below:
https://www.yorkshirechoiceawards.co.uk/votehere

Homeless at Christmas

7 January 2019By homelessstreetangels

We help the homeless throughout the year but Christmas is a particularly hard time for our homeless friends. As they are sat on the cold ground watching everyone buying their loved ones gifts it can make them feel even lower.
This is why we try to make Christmas an extra special time of the year and pull out all the stops to ensure they feel loved.

So as you know we had a santa sack appeal and collected gifts, wrapped them and bagged them up in Santa sacks ready to take out and deliver to our homeless friends.
On Christmas eve we headed to the streets of Leeds to hand out the presents to all our homeless friends and also give them a hot Christmas dinner.

All our homeless friend were so happy to get the presents and a hot Christmas dinner and they still are talking to us about their presents they received.

On Christmas morning one of our amazing volunteers was up at the crack of dawn to start cooking lots of breakfast sandwiches to take out to our homeless guys. She also took out waffles with maple syrup, selection boxes, homemade gingerbread men and lots of hot drinks.
Our homeless friends were so happy to wake up to a hot sandwich and lots of goodies!

Helping our friends at Christmas is very important to us and we want to make it as special as we can for them!

Santa Sack Appeal – On The Night

10 December 2018By homelessstreetangels2 Comments

To start the night, we had lots of amazing donations ready to sort and wrap for our homeless friends. From men’s and women’s gifts to lots and lots of chocolate!

We started by sorting all the donations into boxes of different categories: men’s, women’s, chocolate and hats, scarves and gloves. Throughout the night, people brought more and more donations so these boxes were nearly overflowing by the end of the night.

Small groups of people took a box each and began wrapping all the presents for our homeless friends.

The boxes of presents by the end of the night were full to the brim and ready to be transferred to the santa sacks and go out to our homeless friends on Christmas eve.

Throughout the evening we were also selling raffle tickets for all these amazing prizes, generously donated. From a GHD hair dryer to 2 vouchers for dermaplaning, there were lots of exciting prizes to be won!

As we had lots of kids helping us at the event, they all helped to make cute handmade Christmas cards for our homeless friends.

All the kids also helped on the bake sale, to sell all the beautiful cakes, buns and biscuits that some of our wrappers had brought and donated.

The whole night went amazingly! We couldn’t have asked for better support from donators and helpers and we can’t wait to give all these amazing gifts to our homeless friends on christmas eve.

Helping our friends get off the streets

3 December 2018By homelessstreetangels

So many of you know us for what we do on the streets for our homeless friends but it doesn’t stop there – that is just the beginning, our long-term goal is to get our friends off the streets and in a home of their own and help them to rebuild their lives. This takes a lot of hard work and dedication.

Firstly we need to start with housing options and getting them in the system and making sure they keep up with their bids week after week.

Once getting there properties we need to make the extra touches and make it a home. That’s when all the appeals go out and loads of pickups and collections. We then work our magic and give them something to be proud of but it still doesn’t stop there.

The support is needed now more than ever – help with sorting out bills , paperwork appointments food parcels and just a friendly face so they know they are not alone without everyone’s help and support we wouldn’t be able to continue to do what we do and change lives

As well as amazing donations of essentials for our friends on the streets, we rely on generous donations of things for the people we help to rehouse.

Homeless Doggies

19 November 2018By homelessstreetangels6 Comments

So as many of you know, dogs are a man’s best friend… this is quite literal on the streets. As many of our homeless friends have doggie friends.

Every week when we go out to feed our homeless friends we also, take food and clothes out for their furry friends. We are always in need of dog food, treats and coats.

Although these canine companions often have a thick fur coat, they can also get cold living on the streets. A jumper, coat or blanket for a dog can keep them cosy and stop them from becoming poorly.

Watching the pups eat there food up is amazing they are always so grateful for anything given to them. We take dry biscuits, wet food and treats out for the dogs.

A few weeks ago when we were out on our usual Thursday night we spotted one of our regular dogs. The beautiful doggie spotted us straight away and was so excited to see us. As always we were armed with food and treats for animals.

These dogs provide companionship, protection and love for our homeless friends. A lot of the dog owners describe having a dog on the streets as having a constant friend looking out for you. They look after the dog through the day and the dog looks after them and protects them through the night so they can try get some sleep.

If you are able, please donate to these beautiful pups. Have an old doggie jumper or coat, rehome it to one of our homeless dogs. Going to get your dog a packet of treats from the store? Pick up an extra pack for a dog without a warm home.
These four-legged friends are just as important to help as our human friends, so please donate if you can.

Santa Sack Appeal

5 November 2018By homelessstreetangels10 Comments

Last year at Christmas time we put together backpacks full of presents for our homeless friends to open on Christmas Eve. They were full of essentials such as toiletries, hand warmers, underwear and lots more, all individually wrapped so they had lots of presents to wake up to.

Over 100 rucksacks were filled on the night with items such as wipes, socks, toiletries, chocolate bars, scarves, and gloves. Each bag also had a slice of Christmas cake, a book, and a gift such as lip balm, hand warmers, torch or umbrellas – and every single item was wrapped up.

On Christmas Eve, many volunteers turned up to hand out the rucksacks to our homeless friends. Armed with present filled backpacks they hit the streets of Leeds city centre to spread Christmas cheer. It’s a very hard time of year for our friends on the streets and we want to make it a little bit easier for them. It’s important to us that we make this time of year special for our homeless friends, so they can feel less alone and know that someone cares.

This year we plan on doing a similar thing to ensure our homeless friends have another special Christmas. We are going to be taking Santa sacks full with presents and essentials to gift to our friends on the streets, but we need help! The only way we can continue the amazing work we do for the homeless is through donations and this time is no different.

To be able to make this festive time of year special we will be relying on amazing and generous donations. While you’re doing your Christmas shopping think of the homeless men, women and dogs and maybe pick up an extra gift set or box of chocolates to donate for the homeless. A small gift like these can make someone’s Christmas feel so much better. Knowing that someone has thought about them at this time of year can make our friends feel as though they are cared about and are not alone.

Please if you are able to donate, donate. Below is a list of just a few things that would be great donations. For those that may be unable to buy gifts, we are also doing sponsor a Santa sack, for £25 each it will consist of a Santa sack with gift-wrapped presents and essentials with a personalised gift tag – for our guys on the streets that have furry companions we are also doing doggie sacks at £12 each and are appealing for dog toys and treats. Please give what you can, and thankyou in advance.

Why We Do What We Do

29 October 2018By homelessstreetangels3 Comments

So for our first post, we thought we would like to say why we enjoy and love what we do. We asked our city centre outreach team to tell us why they come out to help the homeless.

Becky, one of the founders and directors of Homeless Street Angels said, “I love to make our friends on the streets know that they have someone who cares and someone to look out for them no matter what”.

Michelle, our Head of City Centre Outreach said “I love to see their faces light up when I give them a cuddle. So many people just ignore them, a cuddle makes them feel human again”.

Lynda said “I want them to know that they are not on their own and that they will always have someone who cares”.

Jan said, “I believe everyone deserves to be treated with respect and have their basic human needs met. I’d like to think what we do helps the people we see feel that there are people who care and will fight their corner”.

Christine said, “I personally feel sowing kindness and compassion is the best gift I can give someone in need. I just love being part of Homeless Steet Angels team, supporting vulnerable people within our community and hopefully gaining their trust”.

We all love doing what we do for different personal reasons, but most of all we all love to see our homeless friends happy and safe. As a team, we all met over a common want to help others who are in need and we have grown together to become a family.