As the years go on, Janie and I have fewer dependents and fewer commitments at this time of year. It is nice to have some time off after the mad rush of work and events at the end of the working year, but we felt this year that we would also like to do something for the community.
Janie did some asking around and basically all roads for Christmas time itself seemed to point towards Crisis. Local projects for homeless and vulnerable people tend to close and/or switch their resources towards the Crisis This Christmas programme, in London for sure, also in several other parts of the UK as well, I believe.
Here is a short Crisis promo video from Christmas 2018:
We thought we might have left it a bit late for volunteering, but as it turned out, by phoning and asking what Crisis particularly needed, we discovered that the night of 25th into 26th December was proving especially hard to staff up with volunteers this year, so we volunteered for that.
One of the largest residential Crisis centres is at a confidential location not at all far from us, so it was an easy decision to opt for that one.
Janie and I meticulously watched the training videos and read the training manual over the weekend ahead of our stint.
I can understand why that particular night shift is a tough one for Crisis to staff; we ate light and stayed off the drink on Christmas Day (some would claim that as a personal bonus) and of course there is no public transport that day, so the fact we are quite close to the location and have wheels helped us get to the location for a 22:00 shift briefing.
Janie and I are not exactly naturals for being general volunteers in a situation that requires volunteers relentlessly to do what they are told. We are used to self-starting, we are used to leading rather than following and (in Janie’s case) independent rather than team working.
Yet the volunteer set up at Crisis seemed to operate like a well oiled machine at our location and on our night. We were told in our pre-shift briefing that the centre was close to capacity with over 240 guests that night. We were told that the 25th to 26th night is sometimes busy by night shift standards, as centres tend to be close to full capacity and the guests have just enjoyed the unusually stimulating day of Christmas itself.
We were also told our shift was down on the preferred number of volunteers (indeed several volunteers from our centre needed to move to another centre which was severely under-staffed), so our shift was staffed by 60 when they would normally aim for 80 to 85. As a result, our breaks would be short and we’d sometimes need to cover a bit more ground than Crisis would ideally choose.
In truth, we enjoyed the fact that we were constantly busy and we had no great desire for long breaks. We did get breaks of sufficient length to freshen up and grab a coffee, which was all we really needed.
We said we wanted to pair as much as possible (all general volunteer sessions are staffed in pairs) and they were able to keep us paired for all but one of our sessions, which worked well.
Janie and I learnt that we can spend a 10 hour shift working together and still talking to each other (just about) by the end of it. More than 27 years together and we’re still learning…
Joking apart, we got a lot out of the experience. A lot of the tasks are relatively low level work but the really important aspect of it is interacting with the guests and helping them to have a positive experience over the holiday days.
The benefits of that experience, hopefully come to fruition in the subsequent days when many – better fed and rested than usual – can take advantage of advisory services which can help get them back on their feet. Some can’t or won’t progress from their life on the streets, but a fair number will.
Talking to the guests was an insightful experience for us too. Some didn’t want to talk about themselves but many did choose to open up to us. Several had fascinating stories; the diversity of backgrounds and experiences they described constantly surprised us.
The post shift review was a very positive experience for us. The shift leaders said they thought we (as a group) had done espcially well, as we had been a relatively small team and that the night, to some extent as a result of our work, had been unusually calm for the Christmas-into-Boxing-Day night.
There had been a few incidents, but they had all been handled well. The most heartwarming story from our shift was the homeless person that one of the outside patrols found sleeping nearby. When he woke up they engaged with him; he had no idea that he was sleeping so close to a Crisis centre. Unusually (as the residential centres normally work on a referral basis only) he was admitted to the centre and hopefully is now benefiting from the services Crisis can offer.
Janie and I are not easily impressed but we did come out of the experience feeling that Crisis is well-organised and doing excellent work for the homeless, not only but especially at this time of year.