All posts by admin
>> R2R Newsletter Winter2011-12“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.
Thank you one and all for your continuing and generous support. Recent donations include:
£300 towards our building fund
£200 towards sleeping bags
£50 from Halmous Cross Ecumenical Lent Group
£30 from Morden carol singers
£150 from Christ Church Creekmoor
£200 from Siemens
£250 from Princecroft Willis
Among the regulars at the Drop-Ins are a number of our client’s four-legged friends. These animals mean the world to their owners and one even won Best of Show in June 2012 at St Peter’s Fayre Dog Show.
We are very grateful to animal charity Margaret Green Animal Rescue. They receive donations of food from a variety of sources, including pet food manufacturers, and, when they can, they donate dog food to enable us to provide a decent meal for the dogs.
Margaret Green Animal Rescue is the oldest and largest animal rescue charity founded in Dorset. Every year they rescue over 1,000 abandoned, unwanted and ill-treated animals and re-home them to loving owners.
They have centres in Devon and Dorset and have a large variety of rescue pets to re-home, including dogs, cats, chickens, ducks, horses, donkeys, rabbits and lots more. Every penny of every pound donated to them goes directly to animal welfare.
In March 2012 we celebrate our 10th Anniversary of being a registered charity.
Join our
10th Anniversary Celebration
A Service of Thanksgiving
with the Bishop of Sherborne
Dr Graham Kings
Sunday, 25th March at 3:30pm
at St Peter’s Church, Parkstone
You are warmly invited to join us to celebrate all that has been achieved and to pray for God’s Blessing on all that we hope to do in the future. The service will be followed by refreshments and an opportunity to see displays of our work.
A very special thank you to the good folk of Skinner Street URC. They so very kindly made up Christmas goody and gift bags for the guys and gals and enabled us to provide a venue for our 2011 Christmas Day lunch. This is in addition to helping to provide regular drop-in facilities, R2R office facilities and storage space for the many donations of clothes and sleeping bags, etc.
After Christmas and early in the New Year even more donations came in and we are truly grateful to all of you. Recent additions to our funds from generous donors include:
- £1414.86 from St Mary’s Longfleet
- £250 from St Mark’s Talbot Village
- £300 from an individual donor
- Sleeping bags and bedding
- £121.12 from The Lantern Church
- £548.17 from St Luke’s
- £160 from Canford Heath Churches: St Paul’s, Canford Heath Baptist Church, Beacon Church
- £223.60 from Broadstone URC
- £200 from St Peter’s
- £120.00 from Wimborne URC – from their carol service and Christmas day service which was attended by friends from the Baptist Church, the Methodist Church and the Salvation Army
- £50 from Liverpool Victoria, Westbourne
The end of 2011 brought a number of very welcome donations of both money, food and clothes. We are truly grateful to all those who have been kind enough to think of us and the guys and gals that we seek to help. And no matter how small ‘every little helps’ as we have so often been told by a certain retailer:
• Holy Angels Church for £225
• Canford Magna Churches for £105
• Buckland Road Baptist Church for £31
• Broadstone Methodist Church for £50
• Liverpool Victoria for food, toiletries, clothing, footwear and cash collection
• Kellogg’s for breakfast cereals
• TwoToo for fleece scarves
• Holy Angels Concert raising £364
• Lantern Church for £350
• St George’s Church, Oakdale for £100
• Various individuals for donations totalling £290
• Church of the Transfiguration Concert raising £400
• Various individuals for donations of food and gifts for Christmas
Some of the money raised is going towards providing a cooked breakfast at The Fisherman Café in Poole for those who are rough sleeping. We may not have had the snow that we had in 2010 but the weather has still been very uncomfortable with rain and high winds, so a hot meal to start the day is a very literal lifeline for these people. A big THANK YOU to The Fisherman Café for again working with Routes to Roots to make this happen.
WOW what fantastic people you are! Many thanks again to our wonderful supporters.
Hamworthy Middle School who donated Harvest collections
Hillbourne School who donated Harvest collections and also raised £160.50 from a non-uniform day, Harvest Tea and donations
St Peter’s Youth Group who raised £350 from pilgrimage sponsorship
Oakdale Team Ministry St Paul’s who donated £250
Canford Heath Baptist Church who donated Harvest goods and raised £410 with a Quiz Night
You may have received an email from us recently. A number of local shops have combined together on the Ragtangle.com Shopping Village and are offering to donate 5% if you write the words “Routes To Roots” in the customer notes at checkout.
The shops are Lumin-Essence (Poole Dolphin Centre), The Village Vine (Ashley Cross) & Fleur De Lys (also Ashley Cross).
Between all of the shops, there is a wide range of wines, flowers, candles (including Yankee Candles), home gifts and glassware. To visit the combined website, go to www.ragtangle.com !
Don’t forget to write the words “Routes To Roots” in the customer notes at checkout! Then we get 5% donated straight back to Routes To Roots!