Our very own dynamic Area Supervisor, DJ Phil, has been busy testing all the bars, clubs and restaurants in Birmingham city centre and has decided that 'The Green Room' cafe-bar is worthy of our patronage for the next BCS Volunteer get-together. It is in the Arcadian centre, close to where we first met in January and February and is directly opposite the Hippodrome Theatre.
We will be there from 17:00hrs on Sunday 10th May '09 and all BCS Volunteers are welcome. As always, no need to confirm, just turn-up, with or without friends and/or family - all are welcome. In the meantime, please give a little thought to what you would like us to organise for forthcoming evenings - salsa dancing is still on-the-cards, as is 'flower-arranging the DJ Phil way'.
As always, DJ Phil and Ellis P are always happy to field any questions etc..
Wednesday, 6 May 2009
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Dave Morris rows the London Marathon for BCS
On April 26th at 10:00am, when the London Marathon starts, our friend and Birmingham Christmas Shelter donor Dave Morris will start rowing on a Concept2 indoor rowing machine at the Virgin Active gym in
He has been training for over 20 weeks and has covered over 800,000 meters in training including several half marathons and one row of 20 miles. He is carrying an injured arm ("my own" says Dave) which will need surgery 10 days after the event!
Funds raised will be split as follows; 50% BCS, 25% Welsh Air Ambulance, 25% Cancer Research.
All pledges of donations should be emailed to Dave at Morris301@btinternet.com
Monday, 23 March 2009
Crisis planning £2.5m centre for Birmingham homeless
Mike, Jamie and Ali attended a reception hosted by Crisis and SIFA fireside on 12 March at the Rep. The two organisations were flagging the fact that Crisis is planning a £2.5m centre for Birmingham's homeless and this is due to open in 18 months.
As far as we are aware there is no plan to open a Christmas Shelter and so our work will continue. However, we do plan to monitor this situation and to work more closely with partner organisations in Birmingham. At the very least we hope that we can engage our guests with more skills and outreach-related developments, as appropriate.
As far as we are aware there is no plan to open a Christmas Shelter and so our work will continue. However, we do plan to monitor this situation and to work more closely with partner organisations in Birmingham. At the very least we hope that we can engage our guests with more skills and outreach-related developments, as appropriate.
Sunday, 8 March 2009
Birmingham Christmas Shelter on Twitter
It's nice to see Birmingham Christmas Shelter now on Twitter. Follow us at BrumXmasShelter. We'll use this to publicise our plans and the shelter during 2009.
Monday, 23 February 2009
BCS, SIFA Fireside and Crisis
The Trustees of Birmingham Christmas Shelter have been invited to a reception about a proposed partnership between SIFA Fireside and Crisis, under the banner of Skylight Birmingham. We hope that the reception will lead to a dialogue about the provision of homeless services, year-round, in Birmingham.
One of our main aims for 2009 is to extend our co-operation and engagement with outreach organisations, in order to offer better experiences for our guests at Christmas, and also to engage the vast expertise of our networks of volunteers. We believe that through partnerships with local and national organisations, like SIFA Fireside and Crisis, we can capitalise on the community spirit of our volunteers and guests and do better things.
We'll let you know how we get on.
One of our main aims for 2009 is to extend our co-operation and engagement with outreach organisations, in order to offer better experiences for our guests at Christmas, and also to engage the vast expertise of our networks of volunteers. We believe that through partnerships with local and national organisations, like SIFA Fireside and Crisis, we can capitalise on the community spirit of our volunteers and guests and do better things.
We'll let you know how we get on.
Wednesday, 7 January 2009
Recycling at Christmas
Over the years a target for BCS has been to reduce the amount of waste that we produce during Christmas week. Ted, our top recycler, speaks about this in our first YouTube video.
This year we used one medium skip, and managed to recycle:
This year we used one medium skip, and managed to recycle:
- 30 bundles of paper/card;
- 10 bags of cleaned and crushed metals;
- 10 bas of plastics [it is frustrating that many plastics, especially those that are black, are not accepted];
- 3 bags of glass;
- 1 bag of crushed foil; and
- 4 bags of compostables.
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Christmas Shelter 2008
We had a great Christmas Shelter last year. Some of the highlights can be seen on our Birmingham Christmas Shelter YouTube channel.
Some headlines follow.
1. We had the following number of guests eat or sleep over with us each day.
2. We had the following number of guests use our services
3. We had some good media coverage locally and nationally, and Liam Byrne, Cabinet Office Minister, made an announcement about volunteering whilst he visted us on 27/12/08.
The Trustees of BCS would like to say a huge thank you to all our volunteers and service-providers who made this such a wonderful Christmas experience.
Some headlines follow.
1. We had the following number of guests eat or sleep over with us each day.
| | Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner | Male sleep | Female sleep |
| 23rd | | 45 | 66 | 41 | 2 |
| 24th | 46 | 60 | 90 | 80 | 5 |
| 25th | 90 | 145 | 110 | 97 | 6 |
| 26th | 93 | 99 | 98 | 80 | 5 |
| 27th | 85 | 110 | 102 | 86 | 7 |
| 28th | 105 | | | | |
2. We had the following number of guests use our services
| Service | No. of guests that used service |
| Showers | 92 |
| Manicurist | 16 |
| Hairdresser | 15 |
| Citezens Advice | 7 |
| Chiropodist | 23 |
3. We had some good media coverage locally and nationally, and Liam Byrne, Cabinet Office Minister, made an announcement about volunteering whilst he visted us on 27/12/08.
The Trustees of BCS would like to say a huge thank you to all our volunteers and service-providers who made this such a wonderful Christmas experience.
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