Introducing “Love in Action”: Empowering lives through compassion
At Sanctuary Trust, we are dedicated to being a practical expression of God’s love. Our new initiative, “Love in Action,” perfectly encapsulates the core values we hold dear. Let us share the incredible narrative of how we act, respect, and empower, making a tangible difference in the lives of those facing homelessness and related challenges.
We Act: In the face of homelessness, we step up to intervene and provide emergency support. From our accommodations to various projects like ROC Community Cafe and Conwy Food Bank, we extend our helping hand to those directly at risk of homelessness. Through immediate action, we address their pressing needs, ensuring they receive the support and resources necessary to overcome their challenges.
We Respect: We uphold a deep respect for each individual who seeks our assistance. Regardless of their circumstances, we treat every person with dignity, compassion, and understanding. Within our care, we foster an environment that nurtures personal growth, skill development, and we offer ongoing support guided by Christian values. Our aim is to empower individuals to regain their motivation to thrive.
We Empower: Our ultimate goal extends beyond providing accommodation. We strive to empower individuals to regain their independence in all aspects of life. Through our comprehensive support system, we offer resources, guidance, and mentorship, enabling them to overcome their challenges and embrace a brighter future. Whether it’s securing stable housing, finding employment, or accessing necessary services, we walk alongside them, providing the tools they need to succeed.
Stay tuned for updates as we share heartwarming stories, opportunities to get involved, and more about how we practically demonstrate God’s love through action. Together, we can make a lasting impact and create a community filled with compassion and support!
The Sanctuary Trust at this time of year is working incredibly hard to give hope to over 900 people suffering homelessness or those under threat of homelessness in the North of Greater Manchester and North Wales without family or friends to support them. Your donations make a huge difference to their lives, for us to offer a little more than food and shelter.
The Trust charitable activities this year have once again increased. We budgeted an overspend to implement a more substantial structure in the organisation to support the growth we have planned. This also included the retirement of Richard Shaw after 30 years’ service as administrator and Financial Director. The transition period with Office Manager Kirsty O’Brien, and her admin worker Carole Revilles and financial administrator Gemma Fowler (who has come back after her maternity leave and the birth of her beautiful daughter Naomi). The demand for our Services has continued to increase. Despite these challenges, the Sanctuary Trust have continued to enhance its offer to people who are experiencing homelessness across Rochdale, Oldham, and County Conwy.
Across the areas of our work, we have provided 53 bed spaces. Along with offering the Rough Sleeper Initiative in Rochdale and Oldham which also operate a Navigator role. We were successful in a joint bid with RCT and Big Life to run the National Probations’ Wellbeing and Integration Support Service in Rochdale. This provides two workers one from Sanctuary Trust and one from RCT to work alongside probation officers. The Make Every Adult Matter MEAM service continues to find solutions for the most marginalised and hard to reach in Rochdale. We secured funding from Albert Gubay Trust to provide a Food Distribution Service, a food pantry and a service giving breakfast to people on Sunday mornings.
Over the border in County Conwy, Holborn House and Beit Tikva offer 12 bedspaces to those experiencing homelessness in the area. Sanctuary Cornerstone continues to move forward and has a continued excellent reputation in the borough for supporting people reintegrate into society. The Conwy Food Bank has an ever-increasing demand for food parcels however we have once again moved premises to the Lighthouse Community Church at Llandudno. Albert Gubay also fund us for our Pass It On Service PIOS in Wales. Finally, our charity shops in Rochdale and Pensarn Abergele continue to offer services to people moving on from homelessness to their own property and in the case of Pensarn make surplus that helps toward our none funded projects such as the food bank.
The Sanctuary Trust has continued to provide social work placements for budding social work students from Salford university. This year we have had 9 social work students, all 9 passed their placements with us. In addition, we have delivered 4 lecturers for 1st year social work students, sessions on: Spirituality in Social work, third sector social work, homelessness in social work and conflict management. These sessions were well received by the students, we have been invited back next year to deliver session again.
In summary, it has been another exciting year at the Sanctuary Trust! We feel very blessed to have such committed and talented staff. We feel we are in a great place to extend our impact and play our part in reducing homelessness across our areas of operation.
Please make a Real Change.
The Sanctuary Trust is a practical expression of God’s love, providing support and encouragement for people who are homeless or seeking to take control of their lives through addressing drug, alcohol or other, homeless-related problems.
To help people to take their full place in society and live independently.
To give vulnerable people opportunity to improve the quality of life by providing a stable environment which enables them to take greater responsibility for their lives.
At Sanctuary Trust we take our responsibility in helping people to take control of their lives very seriously. We have had the great privilege of seeing many people make positive and committed changes in their life.
Here are a few that wanted to share their story…
Y was found rough sleeping by RSI and accepted into Halsall House in summer 2021 due to being homeless in Rochdale with no local connection. He stayed in Halsall house receiving support and staying drug free for several months. He completed “The Way Out” course alongside Narcotics Anonymous meetings and was doing well. Around November
My Journey with Sanctuary Trust began after the covid lockdown ended in November 2020. I had spent lockdown bored and depressed like a lot of other people and spent a lot of time considering my options for when lockdown was over. I decided to email John Wigley to ask if I could volunteer in the
I started smoking cannabis at the age of 10 and crime became a daily thing, this resulted in me being in and out of prison most of my life. I progressed to harder drugs and became institutionalized towards the last few years of my addiction. I was either on the streets, homeless or in prison
I was very young when I started experimenting with drugs, this led to being in and out of prison because of offenses in trying to get access to more. At 36, I got a long term prison sentence, and I lost contact with my family and basically had no one. I was released from prison
My name is Allan Wood and this is my story. I grew up in Chadderton, Manchester. I had a good upbringing my parents did everything they could to provide the best for us. Before addiction I was into sports, swimming, golf, pool, and football. I often think if I could of have a career in
I used to wake up and think, do I drink or do I kill myself? It was a very depressing time, felt like this for years. I am now at a point where I don’t feel this way. I don’t feel the need to drink, I am now 18 months sober. I still have my
Do you want to get involved with what Sanctuary Trust is doing, but not sure how to? We really do appreciate all support and donations made to The Sanctuary Trust.
Took place at Champness Hall Church, on the ground floor of Champness Hall, Drake Street, OL16 1PB on Saturday 1st April 2023 2pm – 4pm Thanks to Champness Hall Church and their amazing worship team, Angie and her volunteers and especially Steve for the Pies, which were enjoyed by all. Thanks to Phil Jones from
