BCS09: open for registration

We are now open for registration for our inductions. Please see our volunteer letter on our downloads page. You will need to scroll-down - it is called *volunteer letter 2009_2.pdf*
To register please read through the letter and then send us an email clearly detailing the following information:

* Name
* Address
* Contact telephone number (home and / or mobile)
* Email address
* First choice of Induction date
* Second choice of Induction date
* The shifts you would like to work

Inductions will take place on 5th and 12th December at 10am and noon, and on 16th December at 7pm. You must attend an induction if you wish to volunteer.

As per the details in the letter, we receive a huge amount of enquiries between now and Christmas and we would really appreciate it if you direct any queries via our email address, enquiry@openchristmas.org and not via the Trustee mobile. Emails are checked daily and we will always respond to you.

We are very excited about Christmas 2009 and we could not do it without your support and commitment - we really look forward to seeing you at your induction and of course at the Shelter this year.

Please remember to bring a piece of photographic ID to your induction as we will be asking you to check the details we hold on our database. Once you know which induction you are attending (we will confirm this to you), please remember to allow plenty of time to sign in so that inductions can start promptly.

Broadening our understanding of our community

We had a great meeting yesterday at St Georges - almost a full-house, and the Trustees are really grateful to our wonderful Area Supervisors for their commitment to BCS. The meeting discussed some big issues, namely: the extra services and space we would have this Christmas, including Samaritans, Citizens Advice, Housing Advice, Library Services and IT skills; the provision of clothing at the Shelter for our guests; and the impact of the recession on our numbers this year - we need to enter into discussion with our friends around Birmingham to see the impact on their services this year.

We also had a great discussion with Philippe from Phoenix Futures about drugs awareness and the impact of classified and declassified drugs on our guests. Given that drug dependency, from alcohol and nicotine, to heroin, crack cocaine and methadone does impact our guests this was a critical session. Philippe handled our individual and collective (mis)conceptions really well, and enabled us to engage with the related psychological and mental health issues.

It will be interesting to see how this affects our behaviours over Christmas and our ability to relate to our guests.