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The Connection at St Martins is the biggest and busiest day and night centre for homeless people
in central London, and what we aim to achieve is
to get people off the street and into permanent accommodation and jobs
Thats really our goal. Westminster, unfortunately will have the highest number of rough sleepers
and the highest transient population of any borough in the country
People are attracted to the bright lights and big city, for a lot of people. This is London
Trafalgar Square is london
Here we are expecting to see a 23% increase in the number of clients we receive
Last year we had seen around five and a half thousand people come through our door
An average day is somewhere between 180 and 230 people
Well, volunteers could help in so many ways, we could not be able to provide the
Quantity or quality of services we do without the volunteer help
Volunteers actually outnumber staff here 5 to 1
but volunteers cant replace staff, we have to have core services running at all times
that's why we have paid staff doing that
but volunteers are like the icing on the cake
We're the cake and the volunteers are the icing
All large corporate firms have a social responsibility
and the way we wanted to demonstrate that best was by
Volunteering of time and also fundraising for causes that are on our local doorsteps
so actually in the local communities themselves
This isn't a corporate appeal, this is something that the individuals themselves are passionate about
and want to commit to
Well, as the chosen charity for London this year and with it being on the doorstep of 440 The Strand,
we were very keen to actually see how it operated on the inside, get to actually help
with the kitchen and stuff
I think its our combination of fundraising and volunteering
So by volunteering you actually get to see how your funds are used
in practise, so its great experience
You get to know your colleagues outside of the working environment, you get to see what they're like in certain situations
how they react in certain situations
and you also get to learn a bit about them, I know Phil doesn't mind washing up
which I learned today
It's quite a different experience, being a new team outside of the workplace
You find that natural leaders within the workplace suddenly change and become very introverted
in situations where they are not comfortable, so that was an eye opener
You find yourself in a situation which you don't find yourself in everyday here
and thats a great way to really challenge yourself
and i don't know, when you do see homeless people on the streets
you're very quick to judge, but when you come in and serve lunch, you realise
that they're just normal people and just going about their everyday lives
I think you should definitely research the charity before you go
So, turning up you get the experience, but actually if you look at what the charity does
and it aims beforehand, you can potentially use that while you're doing the work itself
They expect everybody who's homeless to be the people you see sitting in a keep on the ground
covered in rags, thats not the reality anymore
homelessness can affect anybody, so if you come in here, you can break down those assumptions and you realise
That a homeless person is just you or me without a home.