Charity Shop haul

I don't get much of a chance to go in charity shops these days, but this afternoon I wandered by the one in Newfield Green - and happened to have a look at the books.

Now, I know I don't need any more books in my life so I didn't look at the adult ones, but I did get three great books for Imogen - only 29p each!!

Rufus and the Blackberry Monster by Lisa Stubbs, Mr Big by Ed Vere and The Treasure Hunt by Nick Butterworth.  I love childrens books, and it's even more wonderful to be able to buy them for someone who really appreciates them.

Carnival time

This weekend I did one of my favourite jobs of the year - the Stockport Carnival.

The charity I used to work for, for the third year running asked me to photograph their float, staff and the day in general.  Since I know many of the staff it was great to see them all.

By the time I arrived the float was looking amazing, they'd chosen a 1940s austerity theme.  The trailer was towed by a local farmer in his tractor, and was split in two halves.

The first was an allotment, grow your own, the second was a parlour.  The guys and girls were dressed up mainly as the Woman's Land Army.

Last year their float (a seaside theme) won, and I can honestly say that this years was much better - but it didn't win!  I saw all the other floats and they really weren't half as good.

Oh well, it's the taking part!

Chuggers

It's a job I'd probably be reasonably good at, but which I know I'd hate, street charity signup. This is where young people hit a town centre trying to pursued local people to sign up to a regular donation.

They've gained the title 'chuggers' as a combination of 'charity' and 'mugger' as they are trying to get money out of you!

We had the info van parked today in very sunny Rotherham (for another blog entry, but what a nice place when the sun is shining and the market is on). As we sat watching people coming and going a group of 20 somethings in red 'Shelter' t-shirts turned up to get ready to hit the street.

I watched them from the van. I'm not sure why but one asked if I wanted to join them, and I surprised them all by saying no but I did want to give them some money!

When I'm earning I always have one charity direct debit regular donation set up, for the last year or so it's been UNICEF. Recently I thought I'd change it, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity!

I think I made the young lads day!

I've quit

No, I haven't quit my job. I've resigned from the charity; the homeless charity whose committee I was on.

I really enjoyed being involved, and I'm sorry to have to resign but I felt that there was no alternative.

When I joined I quickly realised that things were a little slapdash and unorganised, but over Christmas this became even more apparent. Although the chair of the committee is a lovely guy, I really don't feel that he has a grasp of what is needed, and like other members of the committee I don't think he has the time or inclination to learn.

Committee meetings are rambling affairs without structure, no one takes minutes, and decisions rarely get made. Then afterward splinter groups or individuals make unilateral decisions without reference to the committee.

The whole thing is extremely amateur, and the excuse I kept hearing 'well, we are all volunteers' is not acceptable.

At the last meeting I realised that things were unlikely to change, for the forth meeting in a row the treasurer was unable to supply an accurate account of the charities bank balance, and didn't seemed to think that was a problem! He took over the phone for the charity and then lost messages, controlled the email address but never got back to people - in sort he was either incompetent or useless (I'm undecided which!).

The project manager we'd had for three years resigned out of frustration (she was hard to work with, but bloody good at her job), and many of the committee were continuing to say they hadn't got time for anything other than committee meetings.

When I joined the charity it was because I wanted to help, not just go to meetings and make (or try to make) decisions. I organised the clothing store, storage space, clothing collections, donations, and set up a new website and twitter stream - all in my own time.

With the odd exception all the rest of the committee seemed to do was complain - even when I emailed them to make a decision or give me information I was met with a wall of silence.

When I realised that as a trustee of the charity I could be held personally responsible, I knew that I couldn't take that on - if the treasurer didn't report how finances were, and as a committee nothing happened I felt unable to put myself and my finances at risk.

So, I've left. I did write an email to the committee calmly telling them my reasoning and explaining that I'd happily continue doing the website and probably volunteer again next year ........ But as usual i've had no reply or acknowledgement!

Pudding

I had to share this, it was such a sweet gesture - even if it was totally useless.

When I was in the project on Christmas evening a rather middle class lady came to find me with a still warm Christmas pudding on a plate and two half eaten tubs of brandy butter.

Apparently they'd made two for Christmas dinner but couldn't eat them so had brought one round to the shelter. A lovely idea, but totally impractical - what were we to do with it?

The pudding was enough to serve four people, at a push, and at that moment we were serving food to 60. If I'd given pudding to four, the other 56 would have wanted some, and there in lies the problem with donating food - it has to be of a quantity to feed everyone, otherwise its pointless.

Much better to donate vouchers for a supermarket, we can then use them to purchase things we run short of or bingo prizes.

So the pudding was still on the side when I left that evening. Sadly, I expect it will end up in the bin.

Shift leader

So, I've survived my first shift as leader - and yes I was terrified!

Being responsible for between 50 and 70 guests (many drunk or high - although no drink or drugs are allowed in the centre) and about 15 volunteers is perhaps something I hadn't thought of much until I had to do so - it's a massive responsibility!

I arrived to find that the previous shift leader was a guy I don't particularly get on with (in fact the reason I'd wanted to shift lead this year was so that there was no possibility of having to work with him!), and knew that there would be a few issues as he'd not opened the clothing store for the whole of his shift, and he does tend to wind some people up. But he's actually a good shift leader in many ways.

As the kitchen volunteers arrived I sent them to the kitchen for their briefing from the cook.......only to discover that the girl down as 'cook' knew nothing about it and hadn't even volunteered before. Luckily Christmas night is just cold meet and bits, and she did a fantastic job of getting 60 meals out and prepping for the next day - what a star.

My volunteers had all arrived, including John, and we went upstairs for their briefing. Out of 10 only 2 had been on the project before, and that meant I had to really make sure I explained the roles to everyone, and deal with any worries they may have. Luckily I could put John on the door to start, a role that needs someone experienced. We went downstairs to start the shift.

Only to find a woman 'fitting' in the hall. The previous shift leader was on the phone for an ambulance, as well as the kitchen leader, various volunteers were trying to 'help' and the guests were ignoring it!

I had to take control, getting the previous shift off the floor (too many people), and making sure my guys were okay. I left the 'ill' woman in the capable hands of the previous kitchen leader.

After about 40 minutes an ambulance came, by which time the woman had got up and wandered off outside! She was fine! They took her off to hospital, but said that there was nothing wrong. I had suspected it was just a bit of attention seeking.

The rest of the shift was reasonably quiet, we had a DJ to play tunes (proper vinyl), a couple of rounds of bingo, and I think everyone had a good time. There were a few hairy moments with the bag store, tickets getting lost and disputes over bags (usually the ones with bottles of White lightning inside!).

By the end I was exhausted! The guests know they have to leave by 7.30, and they were good as gold. We cleaned up in record time, and de-briefed. John and I were home by 8.30.

Postscript: I woke the next morning at 2.30 worrying if the toilets had actually been checked and that if not someone might have been locked in the centre all night - of course, this hadn't happened and everything was fine!

Nearly Christmas again

So, it's nearly Christmas and this year I've been much more involved with the homeless charity - which despite the usual internal politics associated with this type of thing, I've really enjoyed.

This year I've taken on responsibility for the clothing store - where a full set of warm clothes are given to each guest.

We've done clothing collections at our volunteer briefings, at local girl guide meetings and at a church nearby.  Lush have donated two large bags full of soap, and even my brother allowed me to clear out the hotel soap from him bathroom cabinet!

Also this year I volunteered to set up and run a new website for the charity.  It didn't take long to set up, with a little help from Peter with some coding.

Every little thing we've done I've written an article about and I've also started tweeting our activities as well.

But as is always the case with this kind of thing - I'm struggling for content.

The committee have welcomed and been pleased with the site, but don't seem to understand the need to keep me informed and updated so that I can pass on the information.

I feel  I'm continuously nagging them to tell me what's happening.

The site appears to be predominately about clothing collections - and this has been commented on!

Over the Christmas period this year I'm only volunteering for two shifts - Christmas Day evening and Boxing Day morning - but one of these I'll be a shift leader.

I plan to pop in a few times over the period of the project to check on the clothing stall and take some pictures.

I'll update both this, and the charity blog afterwards.

The wrong trousers

You might remember last year I volunteered for a local homeless charity over the Christmas period, and this year I'll be doing it again.

I'd very much enjoyed the experience, and had kind of taken charge of the clothing store on the days that I was there. The biggest problem being the amount of inappropriate clothing that people had donated. I'd say for every bag of useful warm winter clothing we were given we also got at least four containing bras, children's clothes, curtains, single high heeled shoes, polyester trousers.......

The small room we had to work in was overflowing with stuff, and myself and the project manager each had to do two car runs with stuff for the supermarket charity collection bins (all of the items were good quality, just not appropriate for our guests).

This year I'm sitting on the committee, and I've formally taken one the responsibility of collecting clothing, sorting it, storing it, and running the store (clothing is given away free to guests, but has to be supervised otherwise they'd take more than they need and sell it on the streets).

Peter and I have designed a leaflet and had it printed, and we are starting to collect clothing. And already I'm astounded at the things I'm getting (even though I've been very clear to people what we need) - thin short sleeved mens shirts, bedding, ladies evening wear, bras suitable for young girls.....

I've begun to think that we are fighting a losing battle. People see us as a dumping place for unwanted clothing, and a way to make themselves feel virtuous at the same time.

How can anyone thing that a bra only fit for a 12 year old is appropriate? Or that a homeless person would have need of an evening dress with sequins?!

It's proving to be an interesting exercise.

If you want to know more about the charity Peter and I have built it a new website, and it now has a Twitter stream too!

If you have any suitable clothing or toiletries to donate (or work for a company who could help in anyway), please comment or email us at harcclothing (at) hotmail.co.uk - thank you.