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-WELCOME TO OUR SPRING NEWSLETTER I would like to thank you all for your continued interest and support for Simon on the Streets.

2013 was another exciting year for us. The pressure for raising funds remained as intense as ever but we managed to finish the year ahead of our expectations which meant we could further invest in an additional worker for Bradford.

We now intensively support over 100 of the most vulnerable and marginalised people in West Yorkshire and we are extremely proud of what we have achieved but know there are lots more people that need our support. Our passion and desire to continue to support more and more people remains as strong as it always has.

2013 also saw a period of change for us. After many years of tireless hard work. dedication and commitment, Clive Sandie left his role as Director to take on a new challenge outside of our organisation.

Simon on the Streets would not be in existence if it was not for Clive. We are tremendously grateful for all he did for us and we will strive to continue his amazing work. His contribution will never be forgotten. Thank you Clive.

Helen Beachell is now responsible for managing the day to day running of Simon and is supported by a wonderful team of Trustees. We are delighted to welcome Nicola Cliffe to the Trustee team.

Last week, I had the pleasure of visiting The House of Lords, to meet with Lord Allen of Kensington. Lord Allen was our Secret Millionaire on the television programme a couple of years ago and is still very interested to hear about our progress. We remain grateful to him for his generosity and his continued support. It was such a proud moment for me to represent Simon on the Streets in such a renowned and prestigious institution.

Through Helen's passionate leadership, we have started 2014 in great shape and are very excited about our ;iture.

Thank you again for helP.ing us to support those people in moSt need.

- Ian McKenzie, Chair of Trustees -J-

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SHARING IN OUR VISION Over the past 12 months we've worked hard to raise the profile of Simon on the Streets. Our team's efforts have helped us to increase awareness of the work we do throughout Leeds, Bradford and Huddersfield and attract support from a number of local businesses.

We were delighted when Vision Office, a new and used furniture supplier based in Garforth in Leeds, decided to make Simon on the Streets its charity partner for 2014.

Vision's Operations Director. Richard Lucas. really took our mission to heart and has led his team passionately in their support of the charity. They've already supported a number of our events. including sleeping rough with us at the Big Sleep Out in 2013. We hear they have big plans for fundraising in 2014, including a parachute jump!

C""'""v-c"" v-~ises cvev- £. \'3,000! We have been overwhelmed by the hard work and commitment of the congregation at Lidgett Park Methodist Church who raised a whopping £13,000 for Simon on the Streets in 2013!

Fred Langley of the Church explained: "Having heard about the vital work that Simon on the Streets does. we decided to make the charity the focus of our fundraising project in 2013. We held a variety of events throughout the year and received many individual donations. as well as support from our church groups. It was a real group effort and in total we managed to raise over £13,000."

From monthly community coffee mornings and cryptic quizzes to 'posh' afternoon tea and car boot sales. there has been plenty of fun along the way. The church even hosted a special concert featuring the Yorkshire Post Brass Band and the Wendell Singers.

One of the highlights of the year has to have been the church's flower festival, which showcased 20 flower arrangements designed to represent particular streets in Leeds. Needless to say, the event was a huge success attracting visitors from all over Leeds (and beyond!) and raising over £1,500 in the process. A special calendar was also produced that featured each of the arrangements. raising even more money for the charity.

Fred said: "Although the project has come to an end now. Lidgett Park will continue to have a special concern for the work of Simon on the Streets and wishes the charity well in the future."

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SAFE IN THE KNOWLEDGE We're hugely grateful when local businesses people support us by taking the time out of their busy schedules to share with us their time and skills.

Our team recently benefited from a day of conflict resolution training, generously provided by Good of Good Sense Training.

We first met the owners of the company, Darren and Ade, at the Brand Yorkshire Conference last year and we were delighted when they offered to deliver the training for free as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility.

Helen Beachell, General Manager. explained: "We pride ourselves in treating people with respect and dignity, and I firmly believe this is the reason we successfully avoid conflict with our service users. I see no reason for that to change. Nevertheless. the day was a fantastic team builder that taught our staff some valuable skills in how to stay safe and remove themselves from danger. should the situation ever arise."

Helen added: "We have had incidents over the years where we have come under fire from members of the public that we don't know, and it feels great to be able to give our team the skills to keep themselves safe, both at work, and in their personal lives."

A massive thank you to Darren. Ade and all the team at Good Sense for some fantastic and insightful training.

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A few months ago, our General Manager had this experience at a soup run and felt the need to commit it to paper. It really shows the value of human contact and emotional support for its own sake. "Last night's soup run was frantic. challenging. adrenaline-filled and hugely uplifting for me. Ironically, the thing that hit me the hardest was the simplest of things that passed unnoticed to everyone else there in the midst of the ambulance for the guy with the head injury lying motionless on the floor. the almost-fight and the guy who wanted to end it all right then and there in front of us.

Let me take you back 3 years ...

In my first week at Simon On The Streets as our Operations Manager. I went out to do some evening outreach with Jamie, one of our workers. I decided that if I was going to manage a team. I needed to understand first-hand what it was that they were dealing with. We quickly bumped into Karen, a hard­nosed, angry-looking streetwise girl in her 30's who seemed to have what my Mum would have called ·a massive chip on her shoulder·. Karen made it clear she didn't w~nt to interact with me, but needed to talk to Jamie urgently about something. I wasn't someone she trusted or was about to share with. So, I hung back and followed Jamie and Karen from about 50 yards. trying hard not to appear as a threat to Karen in any way; this tough Glaswegian woman made me feel that if she decided she didn't like me. she wasn't going to mince her words telling me.

We made it as far as the old bus shelter on Boar Lane. As Jamie and Karen stood and I hovered in the background looking more than awkward, I heard her ask Jamie "Who's she?" Jamie explained who I was and why I was there and Karen turned and said "not many managers do that. you're alright, you". She moved to sit on a bench and as she sat, looked back at me and hutched up just ever-so-slightly in a gesture that said, "you can sit here. but I'm not going to ask you". In silence I joined them and let Karen continue talking to Jamie. As time passed she began to include me and we got talking. Karen had children that were now lost to her and we found common ground in sharing stories about our kids and what they meant to us. Karen asked me if my daughter had long hair and I told her she did. She went on to ask if I plaited it and tied it with ribbons and bobbles.

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THE SMALLEST THINGS

CAN MAKE THE BIGGEST IMPACT

Karen knew how to plait hair in I way that I didn't, but it took two people to do it. "Here·. she said "J'll teach you" and undid the matted dirty brown strands that were held together in an elastic band at the back of her head.

Now, in truth, I'm ashamed to say I gulped. I am known for being a little fussy about being clean and this was the kind of situation my nightmares are made of. But what could I do? To refuse this very personal offer of human contact and trust would have damaged everything we had spent the evening working on, and flattened any feeling of value and worth that Karen was getting from the time we were spending together. My guess is that there aren't many opportunities that Karen gets to feel that she has skills that she can teach anybody, let alone get the chance to do so. So, I swallowed it down and prayed it stayed there, and I took hold of two strands of her hair and Karen showed me how to make hair look like a rope. When we had finished she told me "Go and do this with your girl, she'll love it 'cause she'll have to help you do it, and tell her I taught you".

And so I did. My little girl loves making her hair into a rope with me, and knows all about the lady called Karen that showed me how to do it. For the next 3 years I didn't see Karen but continued to ask Jamie how she was doing. Let's just say she's had her ups and downs.

Last night, I saw Karen again for the first time since that night. She looked angry and determined to talk to another service user and I decided that it wasn't the best time to approach her. After all. I felt sure that if she recognised me, she would come over if she wanted to say hello. I turned to a colleague and told him that I felt it was a shame that after that night 3 years ago, she probably wouldn't realise who I was.

I found myself with Karen and Jamie later on and I asked her how she was. She gave me a sideways glance that said "and who do you think you are?" and carried on talking to Jamie. When the chance arose. I said "do you remember me, Karen? I am the lady who plaited your hair in the bus shelter years ago·. My heart pounded as I told myself not to be so stupid, with all the things in Karen's life. why would she remember me?!

But Karen stopped and turned. She looked at me for a second and her face broke out into an enormous (if toothless) beam and she grabbed hold of my hand. "I remember you! Do you plait your gir1's hair like I showed

you?" I told Karen that I did, and that every time we plaited it together we talked about her. Karen's anger and tough-girl expression disappeared and she cried. She told Jamie and me how bad things had got for her and that she had started to self-harm again. When she had finished, there was little else I could find to say, but Karen untied the same matted and dirty hair, turned to me and said "Here, let's show him how we do it!" and so I took the same gulp I had taken three years ago and prayed that it would stay down again, and we plaited.

When I left last night I thought hard about what had happened and why it was that Karen had remembered it so clearly. Karen survives a life littered with violence and abuse, she uses drugs and alcohol to blot out the trauma of her past, and when she can't get the money to make that possible, she prostitutes herself for the price of a bus ticket to make enough for the drugs that make it all go away. The hour I spent with her three years ago in a bus shelter in Leeds may well have been the first time in Karen's life that someone did something "girly" with her "just-because". II was a woman to woman interaction that disregarded class and status and upbringing, but that was about child-bearing, the thought and experience of losing the most precious thing in the world, and the need for someone to understand.

So, in amongst the ambulance for the motionless guy with the head injury, and the man who wanted to end his suffering then and there, and the younger men who were trying to establish a hierarchy through threats and punches. it is Karen who stands out to me from last night. and who I will think about most in the coming days.

As you go through your week bustling hurriedly from meeting to meeting in West Yorkshire's cities, see these people, and give them a smile. A little humanity can mean more than you or I can imagine.

As long as I live I will remember how to plait hair into a rope, and I will always tell Karen's story as I do it."

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LISTENING TO LUCY On a recent evening outreach session I bumped into Lucy in the city centre. I've had some contact with Lucy in the past, the last time being around 3 years ago; when she oelighted in telling me she had settled down in her own property with a partner who had a full time job. Having seen very little of her since this time, I made the presumption that life must have settled down for her, however, the conversation I went on to have with Lucy suggested this was not the case. I have always known Lucy to be very timid, and she often struggles to talk openly. Lucy often appears to be very vulnerable and has been involved in a number of violent relationships in the past. When I bumped into Lucy she was begging in town and told me she had somewhere to stay tonight as long as she went back with enough money to buy heroin, Lucy told me she didn't really want to be using heroin but felt this was the easiest option available to her right now.

I talked to Lucy about other housing options, she told me she had got married 3 years ago and had 2 children soon after, she left her husband as he was pressurising her into prostitution and was often violent towards her. Lucy told me she had been staying in a women's hostel, but had been having difficulties with some of the other residents there.

Because Lucy is quiet and timid she is often taken advantage of by others, and claimed she was regularly being bullied in the hostel and forced to make money for some of the other girls for them to buy heroin. Lucy left the hostel and began sleeping rough under the dark arches.

I asked Lucy if she wanted me to accompany her up to the housing hub so we could look at the options for securing some safe accommodation for her that evening. Lucy was reluctant, in her eyes she had a number options available; each one as bad as the other. After spending a considerable amount of time talking to Lucy, and letting her cry and share her frustrations, Lucy agreed to attend the housing hub with me to see what could be done. Upon arriving at the office and pressing the buzzer, the staff member came to open the door, took one look at Lucy and said she was too drunk. I explained to the staff member that I had spent the last 2 hours talking to Lucy and she was coherent, just very upset. Reluctantly the staff member let us in and started giving Lucy a lecture about leaving her room at the women's hostel where she was staying. I was bemused by the attitude of the staff member, he had a very black and white attitude and little interest in Lucy's circumstances on a human level. As far as he saw it he had already provided Lucy with a bed,

which she had left resulting in her \ becoming intentionally homeless. He made a phone call to the hostel where Lucy had been staying to see if she could return, I explained of the difficulties that Lucy had experienced at the hostel, only to be met with the comment "she brings it on herself" right in front of Lucy. This lack of understanding made me quite angered, and it resulted in Lucy running out of the building crying "just forget it all". I tried to catch up with Lucy, however, after being treated the way she had been, she was very upset and just wanted to be by herself. I respected Lucy's wishes and said I would meet her tomorrow. This is a common pattern of events for the people we support. Our service users are often reluctant to engage with mainstream services because of the way they are treated. Instead of being treated as vulnerable people with some deep­rooted emotional problems, people are often judged by their behaviour and • resisted of support. If I hadn't have accompanied Lucy to the centre, I have no doubt she would not have even been seen and simply been turned away for being "too drunk" according to one person's opinion. As long as this opinion _.. continues to be held by some of the mainstream services there will continue to be vulnerable people excluded from the very support they need to access.

YORKSHIRE MAFIA AND THE BUY YORKSHIRE CONFERENCE NEW LOOK NEWSLETTER When local business people decide to take some time out to generously volunteer their time and skills to the charity, it's often only the beginning of a Jong and rewarding relationship.

For the past few months, we've been lucky enough to benefit from the expertise of Geoff Shepherd, founder of The Yorkshire-based networking group The Yorkshire Mafia, who was introduced to us by SkilJWill, a business-to-charity brokering organisation. Geoff kindly volunteers half a day of his time every month to help us develop our strategy for growth.

Since we first started working with Geoff. our relationship with The Yorkshire Mafia has blossomed and we were delighted when they named Simon on the Streets their charity partner for 2014 and charity sponsor of the nationally recognised BUY Yorkshire Conference. The conference is to be held at the Royal Armouries in May 2014 and will provide us with a fantastic opportunity to raise awareness of our work amongst the wider business community and continue to build our network of support around the region.

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This year Rushfirth Creative have joined the Simon On The Streets' team of expert volunteers by offering to produce our newsletter for us. We are hugely grateful to the West Yorkshire creative partnership for their flexible and supportive approach which has resulted in our striking new look The Word on the Streets newsletter.

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