GM Emergency Winter Provision. Huge thanks to everyone involved

A Bed Every Night. Greater Manchester 2018/2019

Many thanks from the ABEN Steering Group.

A Bed Every Night was not without problems, but the successes far outweighed any misgivings or hiccups along the way. So many people were inside and supported throughout winter, many of whom have now moved on to permanent accommodation and a life away from the streets.

There are so many individuals and organisations to thank for their tireless hard work, patience and dedication in bringing this all together. Here’s just a few (and many apologies to those individuals or organisations who are not mentioned here). Your support and hard work has been invaluable.

GRATITUDE LIST

DELIVERIES

  • David Szuminski, from Your Housing Group for all of his hard work with the collections of donations from across the borough.  A special thank you for his work over the Christmas period. This was our busiest time and with -out your support this would not have been possible.  Also, his employees Lenny Foster and John Sinclair for delivering items to one of our GM provisions
  • Stephen Lowe from Enterprise Flexi Rent for organising deliveries in terms of vans and staff.  Also a big thankyou to Jodie Hindley and Danny Matthews for their x3 trips with items and x3 deliveries to provisions
  • Mark Fay, an independent delivery driver, for his journey to GM areas to collect and deliver items over the Christmas period
  • Manchester City Council for allowing to utilise the Manchester City Council work van utilised for the collection of donations and deliveries across borough.
  • Brian Gates from Evolves for providing transport to support the closure of one provision and to ensure that the building was cleared.
  • Alan Hankin from Saint Vincent Housing and his employee Brian Drury for their support in delivering items to 2 provisions.
  • Salix Homes for a very kind provision of a storage unit, we utilised this space for holding all donations prior to dispatch.

DONATIONS

  • Ruth Coglan at St Vincent’s Housing Group for various items donated by the staff team
  • Suzanna Heap from Barclays at 4 Piccadilly Place for various items donated by the staff team. Again to Suzanna Heap and her colleaguse for holding a Cake Sale within their local branch. They raised £193.00 which was then matched by Barclays Bank totalling £386.00
  • Emma Harvey from Bruntwood, NEO offices, for storing various items with- in their business space over the Christmas period
  • Jammeh Backery from Manchester Community and Volunteers for putting us in contact with donators
  • Jill Lockhart from The Trafford Bar Hotel for her donation of duvets
  • Rhian Davitt Jones from Manchester Development and Planning and staff there for the donations of clothing, toiletries and other items
  • Gill Moss from Breanheath for her various donations of kitchenware, toiletries and other items
  • Ronal Mallander, an independent donator, donated x2 double duvets and x5 blankets.
  • Mylo Kaye from Pledge donated 4 Folding Beds
  • Virginia Bazley, an independent donator, donated 6 Folding Beds and then also donated £100.00 cash paid directly to The Mayors Homeless Fund
  • Matt Jump from Network Rail and his team at Picadilly for donating items including dried foods and clothing
  • Jo Sproson from Freshfields – Bruckhaus Deringer LLP for her donation of clothes, toiletries and dried foods.
  • Richard Pearson from AC Hotels Marriot for donating 100 pillows.
  • Councillor Laurence Walsh from Trafford Council for the large donation of tinned soup. Also a special thanks to The Communication Workers Union for their efforts in acquiring soups as part of Councillor Lawrence Walsh’s work
  • University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for resourcing BBV testing in ABEN provision, and Infectious Diseases Team at PAT for donating their time to carry this out, outside of their normal working hours.
  • Leesa Mattresses for supplying 100 mattresses free of charge to our projects
  • Croftons Solicitors for their kind donation of £100.00.  Also a big thank- you, again to David Szuminski, for working to get those monies to the relevant department.
  • Guinness Housing Trust for donating £500 of supermarket vouchers
  • Wendy Yates and all of those who donated to Tyntesfeild Primary School in Trafford.  Items donated were 15 boxes with tea, coffee, sugar, toiletries, cleaning products, dried and tinned foods and also winter warm clothing
  • Emma Harvey and all of the staff who donated to the 6 Manchester based buildings/offices via Bruntwood.
  • Hiral Shah and Mahendra Bagrecha from Shrimad Rajchandra Love & Care and all of the donators there.  Items were 7 boxes and 10 bags filled with blankets, winter warmers and much needed socks. Special thanks to Trafford Council and staff there for storing the above donated items in their offices at The Town Hall.
  • Again to Hiral Shah and her community group, Shrimad Rajchandra Love and Care; this time for gaining cash donations which were then spent on much needed tea, coffee, sugar and long-life milk.
  • Hailey Lane and the staff from Pinewood Hotel.  Donations were 6 boxes of clothing and dried/ tinned foods
  • Kay Watson and staff from FML for their donations at their offices in Manchester. Donations were trousers, winter warmers and toiletries.  Also, special thanks to Russel and Andy for moving these items to the designated pick up point at such short notice.
  • Lesley Rollinson from Accrol Plc and Judy Vickers from Lifeshare for their donation of 2500 much needed toilet rolls.
  • Rose Camm from City Co City Centre Management Company for Manchester and Salford for their generous donation of cleaning materials.

Once again, thanks to everyone involved for making this happen. It couldn’t have happened without you.

Thanks for your time.