Charity no: 1063917
For over 23 years, Big Breakfast Plus (BB+) has provided a cooked breakfast in central Swindon to homeless people and those in need including rough sleepers, sofa surfersand anyone without access to cooking facilities.We are open from 7 to 9 am, 6 days a week throughout the year, serving over 7,000 breakfasts a year.We provide a safe place for outreach workers from partner organisations and statutory agencies to engage with and support our clients. We currently employ 2 Cooks for 6 hours a week each, supported by a team of volunteers who between them have given over 80 years of volunteering to BB+.
Homelessness in Swindon has risen significantly, with the number of rough sleepers almost trebling in the past 2 years. Multi-occupancy tenancies are on the rise and there has been a noticeable increase in female homelessness – with very little support available for a particularly vulnerable section of the community. Changes to the benefits system, delays in accessing benefits and dispersal orders under Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) may all have contributed to this.
We are entirely self-funded and are dependent on grants and donations. Whilst we have very specific objectives (i.e. providing a cooked breakfast to order), we punch above our weight, working in partnership with other organisations and statutory agencies [- see *example below]. We offer a safe and informal environment in which key workersfrom other agencies including the borough council’s homeless prevention team can identify new faces among the homeless community,meet our service users and build trust to enable them to identify and address underlying issues including unemployment, mental health problems and addiction as well as accommodation options, and to introduce them to / signpost appropriate support.
[*At our 2016 AGM, an Outreach Worker from Threshold Housing Link(THL - charity no1017599), which provides emergency, short, medium and long term accommodation to single homeless people in Swindon, explained the critical importance of the access that BB+ provides to him and his colleagues. He emphasised the difficult environment in which he works, with highly vulnerable people living very chaotically, many of whom don’t want to talk. The relaxed environment at Big BreakfastPlus provides an opportunity for THL staffto engage with our service usersover breakfast and help to support them and move them on – whether that is initially to provide warm clothing, bedding and other necessities or toassist them to access benefits, medical attention, hostel accommodation or, ultimately, to nominate them for social housing.]
Our current Project Co-ordinator is one of our trustees and has been doing this on a voluntary basis for a long time, having been involved with the charity for over 20 years. She intends to retire at our 25th anniversary in 2018, and to hand over this particular role this autumn in preparation for standing down altogether. This coincides with positive signs of a collective will to tackle the issues of homelessness in Swindon and there is a concerted move to establish a day centre and/or night shelter to supplement the inadequate number of hostel places for single homeless people. BB+ is playing a key role in setting up an alliance of individuals and organisations to help the homeless:
Big Breakfast Plus’ trustees have decided to make a considered investment in recruiting a paid Project Coordinator who can work with partners to provide holistic support to the homeless, while having a key role in developing our own service (to include Sundays), and supporting our staff and volunteers through a period of considerable change.
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