The OS Doorstep - a helpful and supportive thread in these tough times

Floss

Jem, I would contact your local homeless shelter and ask their advice. Giving bags out yourselves may create a difficult situation, whereas donating the things suggested by the shelter to the shelter will ensure that the items are given to those in need (as not everyone on the streets is homeless) for the intended use & not used to exchange for other things. I regularly donate toiletries & those things with wings to our local shelter.

Hope nobody thinks I am being a wet blanket - I am just conscious that where I live street crime amongst homeless is rife, and often over something relatively petty such as someone wanting another's hat, drink or blanket.

jem132

Thank you for all the suggestions the man we wanted to help sleeps in this place every night my hubby sees him there every night alone sleeping . He has a little cleaning job In fount of the park and he's always there alone we looked for him tonight to take him a coffee and sandwich but he wasn't there maybe we were too early never mind . We have decided that we will collect things and take them to our local Homless shelter becouse like floss has said it could get quite dangerous . the boys spoke to the local police man who told us the best thing to do to help would be to donate things to the cript .

But we will also keep a few bits in the car to donate if we see this man again .

monnagran

Possesion: Further to the suggestions already made I have found that a packet of 'Thank You' cards, a pen and a book of stamps have been most appreciated. When you have been ill it is nice to acknowledge the gifts and flowers you have been sent but you obviously don't feel up to writing letters.

Jem: What a lovely thought and so important for children to learn to look out for people less fortunate than themselves.
I do agree with Floss, it is better to let a homeless shelter deal with the distribution. If you meet homeless people you can always find out the information and tell them where they can get help.
All the things that have been mentioned are great things to donate. Can I just add - loo rolls, soothing cream for cold and wind chapped faces and plastic bags. I've known Plastic bags be used over socks to help keep feet warm and dry when shoes wear out and spring a leak.

I'm absolutely thrilled because I was afraid I would go over budget for food this month. I had a real clear out before we moved and my stocks were non-existent when we arrived, except for sugar for some reason. I only use it for cooking and we seem to have acquired aa huge amount. Anyway, we have only another 5 days to go and apart from milk and half a dozen eggs we won't be needing anything else so we are still in the black. I have even started, in a small way, to start building up my stores again. I have enough bread flour for about 3 weeks and a few extra tins of baked beans and tomatoes. The huge cauliflower we bought for £1 on the stall in the pub car park has done us proud. That and the runner beans donated by a grateful parishoner, the carrots and onions I bought at the market and a cabbage left over from the previous week have done us for a good 2 weeks veggies. It's wonderful to be back to making everything from scratch and not have to be feeding the 5,000 every week. It obviously pays too.

SQ: Hope your plumbing issues are solved. Doesn't it makes us appreciate the things we take for granted until we don't have them for a while!

The Rev has been on a wedding visit this evening and should be home soon. I'll go and put the kettle on.

x

greenbee

Doveling wrote: »

Jem Hi, just started posting so can't do links.
Have you heard of the Rucksack Project?
It's worth googling for ideas.:)x

http://rucksackproject.org/

Worth seeing whether they have any events organised near you.

There is useful information on putting a letter in the rucksack explaining you have donated the contents, as otherwise the police may think it is stolen.

judi24

Just popping in to say hello - been trying to keep up but been too tired to post anything sensible! Love the rucsack project - going to look into that! Every year at Christmas I wish I had been more organised and volunteered at the local homeless shelter - but you need to apply, get CRBs etc so takes months and never remember at this time of year so this has helped prompt me - my younger 2 kids spend time with thier dad over the hols and i am sometimes at a loose end.


I am not very good on this thread at posting to everyone individully especially after a couple of days off from posting (have been reading but so tired at night brain wouldn't allow me to create a coherant post! Sorry!

wondercollie

I've worked with inner city homeless populations. Please don't put any medications into these gifts. Bandaids, little tubes of antibiotics, yes, but no drugs. We don't know what there past holds but I've met more than a few who have overdosed on over the counter painkillers and has lengthy stays in hospital due to liver damage.


Shelters love donations. Hygiene bags are awesome, soap, toothbrush, little tubes of toothpaste, bars of soap collected from hotels (along with little bottles of shampoo, lotion) are highly valued by this population. No mouthwash, again addiction histories have to be considered.

[Deleted User]

Morning Toughies, well the concert last night was such a huge success DD is still buzzing this morning!!! It went so well that they got a 7 minute standing ovation and the Director of Music who is a very experienced but exacting taskmaster was happy with the choirs performance so they are happy bunnies for that too. I'm such a proud Mumski , I know just how hard they all have to work to bring the music to performance standard and share the beauty of it with the audience, lots of effort from all concerned. I spoke to DD at about 12.30 last night and she was still giggling as they'd been told that the cathedral gates would be open to get back to cars parked in various places, only they weren't and she and 4 other ladies some of whom are in thier 70s had just had to, with much hilarity, climb over the gate to get out of the grounds at the end the vehicles were at and convinced the police would be along at any second, Oh to have been a fly on the wall!!! Pleased to report that all made the other side safely, dressed in thier concert gear, MMMMMM well done ladies!!!

savingqueen

Congratulations to your DD Mrs LW! :T
Well done monnagran for sticking to the food budget.

Finally got the plumber to come out this morning. I knew he would come out as we have used him several times before, he was just busy and I appreciated him fitting us in. Just a minor tweak needed so not too expensive, however a possibility we may need a part if the same fault happens again. Its a wait and see approach. I actually didn't mind too much having no hot water, saw it as a challenge and knew it was only temporary.

Rant alert :mad:
DH on the other hand got really narky with me last night when he came home to no hot water and his dinner not on the table (usually is ready/nearly ready) as I was chatting to a friend whilst our dinner was cooking. We were chatting 99% about secondary school choices, info and related gossip. I was boiling mad with him speaking to me like that and then raising his voice. His dinner plate was banged down in front of him and I was too angry to speak to him all eve. I am under a lot of pressure at the moment, making lots of phone calls is particularly stressful as well and I feel taken for granted. Not looking forward to this evening but I am not going to be spoken to like a submissive wife in a Victorian household. This has been building up for a while now and I can't contain it any longer.:mad:

Sorry to rant, I am still angry. I did not sign up for this kind of relationship at all. I try so hard to make the most of what we have, put our family first and work from 6.30 in the morning til late eve generally - though I do have my breaks on here and with friends I am a bit worried underneath the anger that we are going back down a slippery slope and think what the heck I would do as a single parent with no job, a massive gap on my CV and no wider family support, would just be me and kids on our own. Really don't want to put the kids through that unless situation gets intolerable.

Decided to focus on myself a bit, had coffee out with 2 friends after the plumber and am going back to the gym and volunteering at the school again as soon as this secondary school madness has calmed down. I have more energy lately so am going to carry on with getting on top of all sorts of things especially the clutter and couple that with looking after my needs a bit more.

kidcat

SQ hugs. Children learn what they live, so they need to learn that relationships are respectful etc. Maybe that's something worth reminding him , he is the model for his children and their future relationships.

It's been a busy week here, having decided to gut DS16 bedroom last weekend I did five while days of stripping it, cleaning it rredecorating and recarpeting it. Then came the job of sorting furniture, new wardrobe and bookcase etc. Finally finished Wednesday night and am now trying to rescue the rest of the house which had been neglected all week.
Add in school events, after school clubs and meetings and I feel like I haven't stopped moving.

Possession well done with the house viewings

Mrslw I love how proud you are of both your girls and their individual achievements. All children should be blessed with such parents.

Right am off to blitz the dining room whilst cooking dinner, I rather rashly invited friends to dinner tomorrow night forgetting just how bad the house looks currently.

Pooky

SQ - I think stern words are required. As Kidkat says, this is your boys role model and as such he needs to be more respectful and show a bit of understanding rather than get narky. Might be worth asking him if there's anything in particular that's making him feel so angry at the moment. Hope you can resolve it - I know once those doubts creep in their hard to keep at bay. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt (and then resused it for dusters cos it's OS afterall )

Kidkat - you busy bee! Love the pics of DS's room in the other place - looks very smart. Hope you enjoy your meal tomorrow.

Mrs LW - The concert sounds lovely, what a wonderful experience for your DD.

Had a really bad few nights sleep so feeling really quite ready for the weekend and no alarms. Loads of work to do but I need a bit of family time too. DH had very stern words with DD1 yesterday about her general attitude to life and home. We've tried making allowances for her BF going off to Uni and her starting her course but enough is enough now. DD2 is having a huge strop because I won't give her money for bus fare to go and see her BF over the weekend - she earnt a good chunk of money at the beginning of the month working for a friend and wasted it all on McMuck, fizzy drinks and silly clothes...she's old enough to know better and can sulk all she likes.

The cats brought in a dove this morning, just how far can a dove be spread around the house?? Very far!!!! Still finding feathers now.

Dinner is a mix of YS goodies I picked up yesterday, I wanted a night off of proper cooking so have gone for a few "heat it up" bits and bobs with some dips. Take my OS badge away from me now!!!