#cofebirmingham

Birmingham Churches Winter Night Shelter, supported by Church Urban Fund, provides emergency accommodation, food and support to homeless guests over the coldest months of winter

The Facebook page tells some of the story. An entry records the joy of knowing that one of the guests has found accommodation – “Last night, one of the guests leaned over and whispered "I'm in" - He has a place in a hostel and won't have to go back to the streets.” Another post asks for prayers for a man, Tomas, who has been turned away as the shelter is full. In another, a guest who was a champion table tennis player in his own home country is pictured playing a table tennis coach who volunteers for work at the shelter.

Birmingham Churches Winter Night Shelter, hosted by 14 churches in the city, opened its doors in January and is due to close at the start of next month having provided 12 bed spaces over this period to a largely stable group of guests many of whom have ‘no recourse to public funds’. While the shelter is open to anyone who is considered ‘low risk’, many are European migrants who came to Britain for work, often seasonal, and found themselves destitute. Homelessness has dramatically worsened in Birmingham with the rough sleeper count rising from nine people in 2010 to 55 last autumn. Many campaigners have said they believed the official rough sleeper figures released annually are an underestimate.

The shelter works closely with professional organisations and takes referrals from a local charity that supports people experiencing homelessness. Some of the guests have been sleeping rough for several years. Guests and volunteers all sit down and eat together each night and there are activities such as pool, chess and table tennis. Guests are given help to meet longer term needs through support with finding housing and work and by linking them with other services. One guest for example, will be accompanied by volunteers this week in a journey to London to help him to start the process of replacing a lost passport. The shelter is supported by around 400 volunteers with six Anglican churches acting as hosts out of its 14 church venues. A further group of churches and charities provides transport for guests.

Sarah Turner, Development Worker for Thrive Together Birmingham, the Church Urban Fund joint venture with Birmingham Diocese, which supports the shelter, said: “I am always blown away by the response to the shelter – some of the churches end up with far more volunteers than they need. We have one venue that has a really lovely relationship with the local primary school where the school makes cakes and food for the guests. I think it is the most ecumenical project I work on. We hold a service at the end of the year which is a thanksgiving for everything that everybody has done and to pray for the guests and all those experiencing homelessness. We ask the different churches to look after different parts of the service. It is always a beautiful event.”

- Birmingham Churches Winter Night Shelter is a collaboration of individuals, churches and charities including Housing Justice

Love Your Neighbour, a movement of faith and community groups, was launched in July in Birmingham, in the wake of a rise in hate crime following the EU Referendum vote. Jessica Foster, policy adviser to the Bishop of Birmingham, writes about the impact of the campaign in a blog to mark Hate Crime Awareness Week

Walking through the streets of the suburb in which I live I see a woman I know vaguely wearing a Love Your Neighbour sticker. I never quite work out where she got the sticker from but she tells me a story of how she saw a woman being racially abused on the bus and she found she had the courage to step in and intervene.

Love Your Neighbour is an idea and a movement which emerged in several places, it brings together people from across all sorts of sectors and is interpreted in many different ways. Orange banners are dotted liberally around the city of Birmingham outside community centres, schools and places of worship while posters and stickers circulate at events and gatherings. The movement has also spread to other cities and neighbourhoods with local launches and gatherings proudly flying their orange banner of neighbourliness and kindness.

The banners are carefully designed to carry a number of messages very simply. The graffiti text is a direct response to the abusive graffiti that appeared over the summer. The ‘Love’ and ‘Neighbour’ are made to stand out and the ‘your’ is there to make you look closer and elicit a personal response The colours are related to the sun rising and the subtle shapes are about shaping community in our new world.

‘Do something kind’ was added to the initial text to ensure the campaign had a personal and practical element and could not be greeted with complacency or indifference. It has generated a lot of activity on-line as people happily record acts of kindness they have received as well as those they have generated.

Acts of kindness range from cleaning the staff loos and leaving origami on the toilet roll to Muslims and Christians cleaning up gardens together. There are numerous stories of people forming new friendships, food being shared by neighbours, pets being cared for and jobs done for one another.

Pledges made during the July launch event included:

I will befriend a refugee.

I will smile!

I will promote and encourage the people of St Michael’s Boldmere to get involved.

I will remove waste from my elderly neighbour’s garden before she returns from hospital.

I will be kind and friendly to everyone, even when they are not kind and friendly to me!

I will go to our local asylum hostel and assure them they are welcome in Selly Park & Birmingham.

I will buy some extra tins for the food bank.

I will tell people in certain areas that people in minority groups are fearful of them.

I will say hello to everyone who walks down my street.

I will take Christian friends to share Iftar with Muslim neighbours.

I will do everything I can to stop racism and xenophobia.

I will say thank you to a low paid worker whose service I depend upon.

I will be friendly and kind to everyone, even when they are not being friendly to me.

I will be inclusive and kind.

I will entertain 5 strangers tonight for dinner.

I will love justice, show kindness and walk humbly with God.

I will smile and say hello.

I will invite my older neighbour in for tea.

I will promote unity and kindness on campus – University of Birmingham.

I will embrace difference and celebrate unity.

I will speak to someone new from a different background to myself to start a new conversation.

I will smile and chat with people when I am out and about.

I will give out Eid food this year to all my neighbours.

I will chat and smile at people.

I will invite neighbours to a BBQ.

I will smile and welcome everyone!

I will look out and talk to unknown people.

I will forgive and let go.

A Love Your Neighbour week in Birmingham is being planned during November, a group of friends from different faiths are hoping to volunteer at Calais and the banner continues to pop up at festivals, gigs and gatherings. It’s a movement which anyone can join – the only criteria is that you do something kind and seek to love your neighbour – particularly those feeling unwelcome and on the margins.