Our Covid-19 Response

With the current circumstances and official guidance, we have put precautions and additional services in place to keep our clients safe.

As always, our clients and their welfare are at the forefront of our minds and our work and we are committed to providing suitable housing and support, no matter what the outside world looks like.

Our staff and volunteers are also incredibly important to us and we are committed to keeping them safe too.

Here are the precautions we’re taking and additional services we’re offering:

Working from home:
Staff who are able to are working from home, allowing us to continue with normal operations. This includes our Pathway Workers who support clients in our satellite properties. They are continuing that support through phone calls, text messages and video calls. Although different from our usual face to face contact, clients have shown their appreciation that the support is still there, as this lovely text from a client tells us…

“I wanted to send a personal message to all the support workers within Arc, I think you are amazing continuing to support your clients in this difficult time. I applaud you all.”

Lindley House:
Our 57-bed hostel remains open and staffed. Additional hand washing facilities have been provided, face masks and alcohol gel are available and social distancing measures are in place. We are still able to provide 3 meals per day, allowing a minimal number of clients into our dining area at one time. Although we initially struggled with food stock, we have received incredible support from our community with food donations which our amazing volunteers continue to collect and deliver. Social isolation within such a populated residence with shared facilities has been a challenge. We have therefore been working with other organisations to provide temporary accommodation where social isolation is possible.
 
Rough sleeping:
Our Outreach Team continue to work, going out early mornings for welfare checks at a distance. The temporary accommodation has also been made available to rough sleepers and many are using this opportunity, with the encouragement and assistance of our Outreach Team.

In other news…

The Big Sleep Out
In unprecedented and unpredictable times, we have made the decision not to go ahead with the Big Sleep Out in its usual form. However, we will instead be hosting a ‘Virtual Big Sleep Out’ on Friday 19th June, as we still need support from fantastic fundraisers! You can take part in our virtual big sleep out from the ‘comfort’ of your own garden (or alternative) and raise valuable funds and awareness for the homeless. We’ll be live streaming and providing you with entertainment for the night. We hope that as well as it being a fundraiser for Arc, it can also provide a fun activity for you to do at home! For more information and to sign up, click here or contact Rosie on [email protected] / 07736043403.

Your support
Many people have used this time to think about what they’re grateful for: our warm and comforting houses where we can ‘stay home’, those loved ones we share our home with to keep us company, our family members and friends who can support us from a distance, access to the internet so we can stay connected. Our clients don’t have those things and as well as facing covid-19, they’re facing homelessness. It is Arc’s job to provide that safe space with care and support. We know that times are tough, but we hope that you can continue to support us.

We are not asking our supporters for anything other than to stay connected and we’ll keep you up to date with our work. Let’s remain united and we hope to see you at our virtual sleep out!