newsletter

4
FUNDRAISING NEWS AND EVENTS
www.doorway.org.uk
Autumn 2015
Doorway M&S Ladies Clothing Event Thursday October 29th 2015 Weddington Social
Club, Weddington Road, Nuneaton 7 pm. Tickets are £4 and proceeds of ticket sales come
straight to Doorway. The clothes will be mainly M&S — Per Una, M&S Collection, Indigo,
Autograph. Please come along and bring your friends. There will be nibbles and a raffle too.
Contact Carol Haden on 02476345583 or email [email protected] to reserve a
ticket
We are collecting old stamps so please bear us in mind if you receive
letters with stamps on so we can collect them and sell them
on to raise cash for Doorway. Please drop them off at
Doorway
Christmas is now fast approaching once again.
Christmas is a time
of celebration, conviviality, comfort and company. Thankfully this is the
reality that will be enjoyed by most of us. For homeless and vulnerable young people Christmas is often not like this.
Therefore we provide each young person housed with a Christmas Hamper filled with modest items such as gloves,
socks, scarves, purse, wallet, chocolates, Christmas decorations, as well as a present such as toiletries, make up, or
a gift set and to help make their Christmas that bit better.
IF YOU CAN HELP PLEASE BRING YOUR DONATION INTO DOORWAY OFFICES AT THE ADDRESS BELOW
BEFORE THURSDAY 10TH DECEMBER 2015.
THERE ARE LOTS OF OTHER WAYS TO
Contact Us
SUPPORT DOORWAY— PLEASE VISIT
25-27 Dugdale Street,
Nuneaton, Warwickshire,
CV11 5QJ.
OUR WEBSITE FOR FURTHER
Email: [email protected]
Visit us on the web at
www.doorway.org.uk
Follow us on Twitter:
@doorway2
INFORMATION.
CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S COMMENT
Welcome to Doorway’s latest newsletter.
Our work is multi-faceted - preventing homelessness, helping people in crisis, planning resettlement and last
but not least, enabling young people to develop the skills they need to take control of their own lives. It is a
challenge to meet young people’s needs as other organisations that we have traditionally worked with have
re-modelled due to funding cuts, meaning there are fewer resources. The testimonial below and statistics on
page 2 show that despite this, the staff team and volunteers have done brilliantly again in this difficult climate.
There has been a lot in the press lately about charity fundraising. I would like to reassure our supporters that
we don’t employ fundraisers at Doorway nor do we engage in telephone, direct mail or face to face
fundraising campaigns. However, we occasionally contact supporters, who have agreed to receive emails,
with details of fundraising events or requests for items to be donated for prizes.
We hugely appreciate our volunteer fundraisers who give up their time to help support our work, often with
assistance from our young people. Your support is now more crucial to Doorway than ever before. Funding is
becoming increasingly difficult to secure and finding funding for next year is going to be vital if we are to
continue to able to provide advice and support to vulnerable young people. There are lots of ways to support
us and we have included some suggestions on page 3. It is just as important to support us by word of mouth to
raise awareness of the work that we do, so please feel free to challenge anybody who makes negative
comments about young homeless people, as we frequently find ourselves doing.
A massive thank you to everyone for all for your support.
CAROL GALLAGHER
IN THIS ISSUE
Page 1
Chief Executive’s
comment and testimonial
Page 2
Annual statistics and
news
Pages 3 & 4
Funding news & events
A TESTIMONAL FROM ONE OF OUR YOUNG PEOPLE. ADOPTED AT BIRTH, SHE SUFFERED BOTH PHYSICAL AND MENTAL ABUSE
BY HER PARENTS WHICH LED TO ARGUMENTS AND EVENTUALLY FAMILY BREAKDOWN.
I’ve been with Doorway just over a year and in that time I’ve grown so much as a person.
We would like to thank Dave Ginnelly from Nuneaton. Dave had previously been
homeless and wrote a book called “Wellies & Warders”. He wanted to give
something back and he made a plea on Facebook to all his friends and asked them
to help Doorway. From this, Dave and lots of his friends have brought in items of
food, clothing, household items and monetary donations. Thank you all for your
generosity.
Tee off for Doorway! Thank you to Loveitts, Estate Agents for
holding a Golf Day in June in aid of Heart of England Foundation and
donating half the proceeds to Doorway of £1200.00
Thank you to St Nicolas Parish Church
Nuneaton and its congregation for making
Doorway one of its three chosen charities for
the year –they have donated £1550 since
January
Thanks also go to all of you who either
volunteer or donate monthly by standing
order or call in with donations of food,
household items and money
Stratford Hospital Coffee &
Tea Bar and customers
raised £500.00
Alcester Grammar School
£352
Line 6 in Rugby £3029
Registered Charity No: 1067127
feelings or trust anyone. We built a relationship quickly and she was very understanding
and always kept her word.
Throughout my life I’ve always felt like I just blended into the background like no-one ever
listened or cared what I had to say. My Support Worker didn’t just hear what I was saying, she actually listened and gave me a voice again. She always made time for me and made me feel worth something again and
helped me gain a lot of independence and self-esteem.
From our weekly meetings she opened up a whole new world of opportunities for me and changed my outlook on society around me,
helping me realise that there are still good people out there that can help and that I can do anything I want to do. From the dark
place I was in before Doorway to where I am now is a massive achievement for me and is something I will carry with me for the
Nuneaton Rotary Club £250
LDJ Solicitors £125
When I first met my Support Worker I found it very hard to open up, talk about my
Virgin Trains £377
Unipart in Tamworth have
made us one of their chosen
charities this year and staff
have been bringing in dona-
rest of my life.
She saw positive in everything, which eventually rubbed off on me and I started to believe in myself again. She
inspired me to do the things I love again and to find myself, and that was the biggest gift of all. She is a truly amazing support
worker.
A year later and I’ve got a job, live independently and am truly happy, all thanks to the work my Support Worker and I did. It’s a
real shame there aren’t more people like her in the world and I only hope that one day I can help someone the way she helped me.
I’ll never be able to thank her enough and I can honestly say it was the greatest honour to have known and worked with her. She
helped me find myself again and I don’t know what sort of life I would be living now without Doorway or my Support Worker.
2
3
ANNUAL DOORWAY STATISTICS 1.4.14-31.3.15
Housing Advice Statistics
Housing Support Statistics
Total number of new advice clients at end of March
2015 was 433 young people. Of these:
38 were rough

Doorway supported a total of
sleeping and 48 were sofa surfing
when they came to us.

Out of the
the

109 were aged 18 or under.

266 were unemployed when they came to
people
55 who moved on who moved on from
service, 89% moved on positively which is a
fantastic success rate for us.
Doorway for help.

121 young
during the year.

91% reported their self confidence had improved
since being supported by Doorway.
48 had involvement with Social Services.
DOORWAY NEWS
Doorway is once again delighted to be awarded the Advice Quality Standard Award (AQS).
Organisations that hold the Advice Quality Standard (AQS) have been through a rigorous
audit process that checks how they manage their advice service. This helps organisations to
manage the risk in supporting advice services and assists in their monitoring processes.
Volunteers from the Challenge and young people from Doorway helping to clear Doorway’s allotment in Bedworth ready for some
winter planting.
FUNDRAISING NEWS
Doorway is registered with Local Giving which makes supporting us even easier.
SCOTTISH POWER ENERGY PEOPLE TRUST
Thanks to a grant from Scottish Power Energy People Trust we were able to run an Energy Wise project which
aimed to support individuals who have been homeless or are at risk of homelessness to take control of their
finances. Doorway held workshops in shared houses using monitors so that young people could see which
appliances used the most energy. They found this fun and made jokes about who spent the longest in the
shower but this clearly showed that it got them thinking about usage.
Access to Supported Housing Partnership March 2015
From Tuesday 13th
October at 10am
Local Giving will once again be matching one-time donations
£ for £ up to £10, and monthly donations up to £10 per month for 3 months. With Gift Aid, a one-time
donation of £10 made through Localgiving.com during Grow Your Tenner will generate £21.67 for
Doorway.
Local Giving can also be used to set up an online fundraising page for any sponsorship you wish to undertake
for Doorway. Setting up a fundraising page with Local Giving is quick, easy and 100% free! Ask your friends for
sponsorship, keep track of donations and share your progress via Facebook or Twitter. Plus, use our top tips to
The Access to Supported Housing Partnership (ASH) partnership was awarded funding to prevent
homelessness and help young people aged 16 - 25 and vulnerable adults with low level mental
health issues to sustain their tenancies in Rugby, Nuneaton & Bedworth, North Warwickshire and
Warwick districts. As a result Doorway has been able to employ 4 Support Workers for 2 years to
work on this project.
make sure your fundraiser is a success.
For instance, this could be by doing something to mark World Homelessness Day on 10th October 2015.
Why not set up a Local Giving page for your team or company? It is a great way of team building and getting to
know each other better. Could your company take on a 12 day Christmas Challenge? Each team, or employee,
National statistics show that homeless people are 5 times more likely to experience anxiety or
depression than the general population and 9 times more likely to commit suicide than the general
population.
takes on the challenge of raising funds on a different day over 12 days - you could be very creative with ideas!
Perhaps an easier idea is to “Make Your Last Hour of 2015 Count”!! This year help Doorway by donating the
THANK YOU PUDSEY!!
We are proud to announce we have once again been awarded 3 years
funding for the post of Young Person’s Housing Support Worker who
works specifically with vulnerable young people aged 18 years and under.
equivalent of your final hour’s pay of 2015 to Doorway. If you are an employer, why not take on this challenge
leading the way with the Chief Executive donating first, or pledging to match what your employees raise?
So please register with Localgiving.com and make a difference to local young homeless people’s lives.