Mobile Library
“One of the problems that homeless people face is a lack of motivation, partly due to boredom. Finding something of interest to look forward to can be life changing.” (Rev’d Pat Southgate, Chair of Routes to Roots).
Routes to Roots undertakes a number of initiatives to provide the homeless with worthwhile activities, such as afternoon workshops and outdoor summer activities, and has now joined forces with Quaker Homeless Action to provide a mobile library for the homeless in Dorset and Hampshire. QHA has provided such a facility in London since 1999 to allow those without a permanent address access to books.
The Quaker Mobile Library in partnership with Routes to Roots will not just be a provider of reading material but also a venue for meeting and socialising.
Revd Pat Southgate greeting the Mayor of Poole at St Peter’s Fayre
It has made its first appearance at St Peter’s Summer Fayre in Ashley Cross Green, Poole, on Saturday 9 June. A regular schedule is still being set up but will include Soup-Runs in Poole and R2R afternoon and evening Drop-Ins at the United Reform Church, Skinner Street, Poole. It is also planned to offer the facility to other homeless outreach operations and charities in Dorchester, Weymouth, Bournemouth, Winchester, Southampton and Portsmouth.
The Mayor of Poole inside the Mobile Library with Revd Pat Southgate
Volunteers are needed to catalogue and prepare the books for lending, to drive the van and to help clients to access books at the various locations that they will be visiting. If this might interest you, please get in touch with Caroline Foy at office@www.routestoroots.org or on 07901 387643.
The Quaker Mobile Library in partnership with Routes to Rootswill provide Routes to Roots with our first branded presence in Poole. Quaker Homeless Action found it to be a volunteer job with immense satisfaction and we’re expecting similar enthusiasm from our helpers and clients. We will be lending out books that have been donated using a library card system but are not too concerned about any that go missing as long as the readers return.