Maggs Day Centre was established in 1985 to support rough sleepers across the County. We help around 600 people every year. We achieve this by providing the following services: two Open Door Day Centres offering food, shelter and support in Worcester and Malvern; Support to bridge the gap between accessing services at Maggs and independently in the community; Befriending project to provide additional volunteer support; Clothing store providing free clothes, sleeping bags, etc; Service user volunteering; Navigation team to support rough sleepers into accomodation; Accommodation project to house former rough sleepers in an HMO with support until they learn the life skills to maintain their own tenancy and countywide outreach, their mission is to engage the unengaged.
Our staff have many years’ experience working with rough sleepers, who are a notoriously difficult to engage. We have developed strong working relationships with rough sleepers, with knowledge of their physical and mental health issues, their addictions, and pressure points. We are uniquely placed to work with this difficult group. Outreach is a key activity through which our staff proactively go out on to the streets to engage with rough sleepers.
Our goal is not just to support rough sleepers in their situation, but to help them to make the changes necessary for them to change their lifestyle, by dealing with the issues that hold them back, like lack of confidence, substance abuse, or poor health, so that they can access permanent housing and return to a conventional lifestyle off the streets.
The nature of our work means that staff are on the front line with the very vulnerable people and have a deep appreciation of both their problems and their needs. Every member of staff is in daily contact with rough sleepers and therefore are closely in touch with the challenges and aspirations of rough sleepers.
