Hi. Thanks for taking a peek. I'm going Hairy for the Homeless this Christmas to encourage much needed donations to Crisis, the national charity for single homeless people. I plan to go hairy until Boxing day, charting my (itchy) progress to raise awareness of the great work this charity does. Please sponsor me to keep going, or to shave it off in strange ways on Boxing day, or simply make a donation. Thank you very much.
Why grow a beard? Growing a beard is for me is a visual reminder that looks can be deceiving; many homeless people were once like you and me, with a happy family home life, but for a variety of complex reasons events can take a downward spiral for some and homelessness can be the devastating result.Homelessness is about more than rooflessness. A home is not just a physical space, it also has a legal and social dimension. A home provides roots, identity, a sense of belonging and a place of emotional wellbeing. Homelessness is about the loss of these, and rarely is the loss more acutely felt than at Christmas. Tens of thousands of homeless people find themselves facing a miserable and lonely Christmas with even less chance of finding a home in these times of recession. At worst, homelessness can mean sleeping rough on the streets and agencies report that nearly 3500 people slept rough last year in London alone. I was shocked recently to see the sheer number of people sleeping rough en mass south of the river in London recently. They were literally lined up, toe to toe in the shop lobbies.
At Christmas, Crisis provide companionship and support to alleviate loneliness and isolation and help people to take their first steps out of homelessness. Over eight days, Crisis welcomes up to 2,000 homeless people to our nine special Christmas centres. Many will arrive with nothing more than a rotten sleeping bag, if that. They'll be counting on Crisis to provide food, shelter and life-changing services - like housing and job advice - to help them find a route out of homelessness.
£25.64 could provide a place at one of our centres for one day, where a homeless person will get three meals, a bed if they need it, and the chance to leave homelessness behind for good.
