Amidst the hustle and frenzy of Christmas, Kiran Kachela helped spread some Christmas
cheer by volunteering at a Crisis at Christmas centre on Boxing Day in London.

Crisis at Christmas is the largest volunteer led event in the UK. There were nine centres
across London between 22nd  and 30th  December offering a safe, warm and friendly Christmas for many homeless people.  Over 10,000 volunteers were required to provide
companionship, support and a range of other vital services such as careers service which
Kiran took the lead in providing.

As a Careers Activity Leader, Kiran managed the IT room and provided support and
mentoring to the homeless guests who came to use the computer facilities. For those who needed it, Kiran was on hand to discuss their experiences and help identify and
communicate their skills effectively in CVs and job applications.

While reflecting on her time spent volunteering, she acknowledged the wide spread
perceptions of homeless people that are often harsh generalisations. Any given homeless person is an individual with their unique circumstances and needs. It is so important to see beyond appearances and engage with the homeless as people worthy of respect.

There are so many opportunities to help the homeless in our city. Our team, Benedicte
Cormier and Kiran recently visited the Homeless Day Centre in Slough run by Sue Serret,
Head of Fundraising at Trinity Homeless Projects, and were awestruck by the community
efforts to help fight homelessness. They found the experience of their visit so eye-opening that they decided to team up with Trinity Homeless Projects and are working with them to deliver a Change Management Programme which involves a site-based ‘away day’ enabling businesses to ignite empathy and truly ‘feel’ the change – an alternative approach to many traditional presentation-based programmes. If you are interested in partaking in this programme, please contact us to find out more at training@ciprojectsltd.co.uk.

To find out more about Trinity Homeless Projects and how you can support them, visit
https://www.wearetrinity.org.uk/shoc/.

If you’re up for supporting Crisis at Christmas in 2020 or are interested in other ways to get involved, visit https://www.crisis.org.uk/.

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