An open door … Carecent, York (Photo: Nicky Gladstone)

Behind the impressive grand frontage of the Central Methodist church on St Saviourgate, down a passageway alongside it, is the entrance to Carecent:

a breakfast centre for all homeless, unemployed or otherwise socially excluded members of our community. We provide food, clothing and fellowship in a friendly and non-judgemental environment.
(Carecent website)

It depends entirely on donations — of food, clothing, volunteer time, and of course financial donations.

One person hoping to help raise money for Carecent is Desmond Wassell, who’s doing a fundraising bungee jump, taking place soon.

Here’s the link to the donation page.

I’m hoping that we can help Desmond reach his target. The jump takes place quite soon, on 2 October.

I’ve been wanting to publicise this since reading about Desmond’s story in the Press last month, how he’s turned his life around.

I had a couple of queries so contacted Nicky Gladstone at Carecent. She’s confirmed that the claim in the headline, ‘8 bottles of brandy a day’ was a misunderstanding/misquote, and that it should have read 8 bottles of sherry. Still quite a lot of alcohol, yes, but as Desmond’s fundraising page explains:

‘I’ve been an alcoholic for many years, and now I’m in recovery. Carecent has helped me tremendously when I was homeless, and now I’ve got somewhere to live I’d like to give something back.’

I met Desmond one evening in 2014, when walking through the market. I’d never met him before, didn’t know that he’d been dubbed an ‘an absolute blight to the city centre’ by the local police because of numerous incidents in the past. He seemed quite charming to me, on that occasion. Drunk and troubled, but basically a nice guy, stuck somewhere he didn’t want to be, looking for a way out.

So I was so pleased to read that he’d turned things around, got help, that Carecent, and other organisations, had helped him.

Carecent needs donations of food and clothing as well, so if you’re not able to donate financially perhaps have a look at the list of needs for autumn 2016 (PDF).

I can see, from my wanders over the years, and in particular in recent times, how York has become in many ways a gentrified and affluent place, with expensive bars and restaurants and with many residents and visitors wealthy enough to frequent them regularly. But also apparent, in stark contrast, is the growing number of people who seem to be struggling to survive, sleeping in doorways, numbing pain with alcohol, needing the kind of help that places like Carecent provide.

25 years ago when we set up Carecent we might have imagined we were providing something which would not be needed for too long. The opposite has proven to be the case.
– from a blog written in 2010

Carecent has been around for more than 30 years now, and seems to be needed as much as ever, maybe more than ever. So I hope, dear readers, you can help support it. Perhaps by supporting Des’s fundraising jump in recognition of his bravery and strength in turning his life around, and because it will also mean a lot to the people who helped him, and assist them in helping others in the future. (Because, as discussed on an earlier page ‘it’s all connected‘, we’re all connected.)

More information

Desmond Wassell’s fundraising page

The Carecent website, and on Twitter @Carecentyork

Their list of needs for autumn 2016 (PDF)

Several articles have appeared in the York Press over the years giving an insight into the valuable work at Carecent:

Volunteers at Carecent in York offering hot breakfasts to those who need them most (26 Mar 2010)

Carecent providing breakfast for homeless and disadvantaged in York (19 Sept 2012)

And from Nouse, the University of York publication: Feeding the community (25 Nov 2014)

The post Helping Carecent, and a brave leap appeared first on York Stories.

The site of the new Peasholme Centre, under construction, 4 April 2008

When I thought about this ‘April daily photo’ idea I intended that each photo would either stand on its own or have a short paragraph of text to accompany it. Having now gone through the available photos from the archives from the month of April in years past I can see that a few of the images I intend to include might need accompanying text of a slightly longer length. This is one of them.

Today’s image isn’t an attractive photo: it’s clearly just a building site. A building site at 4 Fishergate, opposite the Fishergate end of Piccadilly, where the Fishergate Centre used to be. In April 2008 that had been demolished to make way for the Peasholme Centre, or rather, the new replacement Peasholme Centre. The original one had been in Peasholme Green, hence the name.

On 4 April 2008 I took quite a few photos on a wander through York, including some pleasing ones of St Denys’s church on Walmgate, with beautiful light coming in through the windows. But it seems more fitting today to focus on this photo instead.

The Peasholme Centre is a hostel for people who are homeless. Or, more specifically, a resettlement centre for single homeless people or couples without children. The building was completed and opened the following year, 2009.

On the previous ‘daily photo’ page, yesterday, I mentioned a walk yesterday evening, through town. Too long to write about. But I did mention it on Twitter — and my abiding impression from it:

The main reason I use Twitter is because I find it’s an excellent source of information on things I’m interested in and care about. And via Twitter I think I’m fairly well-informed on ‘the state we’re in’ here in the UK, in our towns and cities. It’s clear that things are quite grim, that there’s a deepening division between those with lots of money and those with very little. That the vulnerable in society are in dire distress, over and over. And that while many of us are worrying about the property ladder, some people will never be anywhere near even reaching for that ladder. And that there’s still a lot of misunderstanding and ignorance about why some of us end up sleeping in a doorway while others can spend a night drinking cocktails at £7.50 a time and thinking that’s ‘reasonably priced’. And in York that division is becoming so deep that I felt I had to comment on it, and it’s something I’ll probably return to, because I can’t ignore it.

And haven’t. See ‘related’, below. This page from December 2014 is particularly relevant, and includes Shed Seven, whose gig in support of SASH and the Arc Light Centre sold out today, within a couple of hours of tickets going on sale. I hope the proceeds help the good work of those charities. I hope the Peasholme Centre helps those who have a room there. I don’t know how we help the people in the doorways. Not under this government, which seems callous in the extreme. I try to avoid being overtly political on these pages, but I think I’m old enough and wise enough to recognise that.

The post 4 April 2008: Peasholme Centre site … and shop doorways, 2016 appeared first on York Stories.

By Scarborough Bridge

(At 5 mins 47 secs if my carefully-cued code doesn’t start at the right place)

The links had stopped working on the earlier page as the video seems to have moved. This has now been fixed and my links relinked. The other clips include places recently discussed, including the Hiscox site, which was previously the site of the Peasholme Centre, and the Central Methodist Church, where Carecent is based. It also includes the full video. More here.

I’ve also been reminded of another video I watched back then, meant to mention, never did. It was filmed in a fairly small area near the Arc Light centre on Clarence Street, and again includes buildings I’ve covered on these pages. The boarded-up nurses’ accommodation in Bootham Park (since demolished) feature prominently, as does the front of Groves Chapel (still there) and Clarence Gardens. It’s proper local, conveys an important message, and is very nicely done.

It reminded of this video, also mentioned on this site before, some time back. It was filmed in the same area many years earlier (2001). Towards the end of the video above we saw a man sitting on a park bench in Clarence Gardens. This one starts with a more famous man, Rick Witter of Shed Seven, sitting in the same park. It then moves through the local area, the lane between the hospitals, Gillygate (before it had the large St John’s building at the end), Bootham, Bootham Park.

Many observations could be made about these creative representations of place. I’ll just leave them with you. There’s also that page from two years ago, which may be of interest. I hope so.

The post ‘It’s all connected’, revisited appeared first on York Stories.

‘Homeless Heritage of York – A different kind of mapping’, offers another perspective on this multi-layered city as residents know it. Nothing to do with the ceaselessly promoted tourist-friendly face.

I heard a little about the excavation at the time but hadn’t realised that it had been filmed and that there’s also a website (see ‘More’, at the bottom of the page). The project’s creator, Rachael Kiddey, is a PhD researcher at the University of York.

Like Undressing the Viking this film represents York’s less well-known locations. Even more so, as this really is ‘hidden’ York: doorways and the corners of car parks suitable for a night’s sleep, bins where food can be found.

In Undressing the Viking the women drink cocktails in the evening at city centre bars. In this film the men drink cider, during the day, in Bootham Park and under Scarborough Bridge.

Just one of many obvious differences.

In other ways, as the man speaking in this clip says of the railway lines he’s sitting near, ‘it’s all connected’. This still from the video should begin at the relevant point. (If not, it’s at 5 mins 47 secs)

By Scarborough Bridge

We’re all living here, using the same streets, crossing the same bridges, listening to the same trains rolling in and out of the station. We walk the same ways, me and the men in this film, through Bootham Park, along Clarence Street, down to the river, past Scarborough Bridge. I’m heading off home to our nice middle-class house and they’re heading back to a bed in the Arc Light centre.

There have been complaints about the Arc Light and about people drinking in the areas around it. I’m not judging. I’m interested in their stories and their views of this city I love, and I’m counting blessings. (As several people in this film do. As perhaps we should all do a bit more often.) One of my blessings is that I can sit here and watch a free film about a carefully-crafted and inspiring project, adding a modern mapping of York as another overlay to the multitude of maps I’ve looked at in the past.

Peasholme Centre

It includes one participant, Jack Johnson, talking about the Peasholme Centre. I doubt anyone else bothered to record the history/significance of this building, as it was so short-lived. Like many ‘hostel’ type buildings, like the nurses’ accommodation at Bootham Park Hospital and the YWCA in Clifton, it had a short life. Extremely short, in fact. But so many people must have stayed here, and it’s important that its significance is on record, from the point of view of someone who knew the place properly, and remembers friends who have passed away who also knew it.

This still image from the video links to what should be the relevant point, if not it’s at 6 mins 56 secs.

(Update, 2014: this is now the site of the new Hiscox office.)

Carecent

I remember when this organisation started, as it’s based in the rooms behind the Central Methodist church on St Saviourgate. The same place where, in the 1980s, I used to go to ‘Off the Streets’, a cafe/club, a place where many of us ‘alternative’ young people met, and where we could also get advice on coping with problems at home, getting benefits, that kind of thing. I don’t think that’s running anymore, but Carecent is, doing valuable work.

Steven Cochrane talks about Carecent, and sleeping sometimes on the steps of the church, under its grand portico, sharing a duvet.

Image is cued to start the video at the relevant point. (Or, it’s at 9 mins 57 secs.)

Other perspectives

Watching this film has reminded me … of complaints twenty years ago, via letters to the local paper, about homeless people and street drinkers giving a bad impression as they gathered in Exhibition Square. I was working in King’s Manor at the time, right next to the square. I wasn’t offended by the street drinkers, but was offended by the letters. God forbid that a tourist should see a bit of real life in York instead of that Toytown perfect image we were beginning to present to the world.

There are of course many ways people end up homeless, drinking on the streets, maybe ‘begging’. Some of us think ‘There but for the grace of God go I’. Others just get offended. Each to their own. But we’re all connected, it’s all connected, we’re all walking the same streets. With our own personal maps, in our heads, of the significant places we head to when we need food, drink, company, sleep.

I’m thankful to the cartographers and excavators of the less well-known places.

More … elsewhere on the web

See the homeless heritage website for more videos, including information on the finds from the excavation at Bootham Park. I hadn’t realised, when writing my recent page on the site of the (demolished) St Maurice’s, that the homeless heritage project has recently studied this site in its Monkbar survey.

Arc Light, once based at Leeman Road, had a long struggle to find new premises. It is now based in a purpose-built facility on part of the Union Terrace car/coach park.

Carecent, St Saviourgate

The post ‘It’s all connected’. Homeless heritage mapped appeared first on York Stories.

‘Homeless Heritage of York – A different kind of mapping’, offers another perspective on this multi-layered city as residents know it. Nothing to do with the ceaselessly promoted tourist-friendly face.

I heard a little about the excavation at the time but hadn’t realised that it had been filmed and that there’s also a website (see ‘More’, at the bottom of the page). The project’s creator, Rachael Kiddey, is a PhD researcher at the University of York.

Like Undressing the Viking this film represents York’s less well-known locations. Even more so, as this really is ‘hidden’ York: doorways and the corners of car parks suitable for a night’s sleep, bins where food can be found.

In Undressing the Viking the women drink cocktails in the evening at city centre bars. In this film the men drink cider, during the day, in Bootham Park and under Scarborough Bridge.

Just one of many obvious differences.

In other ways, as the man speaking in this clip says of the railway lines he’s sitting near, ‘it’s all connected’:

We’re all living here, using the same streets, crossing the same bridges, listening to the same trains rolling in and out of the station. We walk the same ways, me and the men in this film, through Bootham Park, along Clarence Street, down to the river, past Scarborough Bridge. I’m heading off home to our nice middle-class house and they’re heading back to a bed in the Arc Light centre.

There have been complaints about the Arc Light and about people drinking in the areas around it. I’m not judging. I’m interested in their stories and their views of this city I love, and I’m counting blessings. (As several people in this film do. As perhaps we should all do a bit more often.) One of my blessings is that I can sit here and watch a free film about a carefully-crafted and inspiring project, adding a modern mapping of York as another overlay to the multitude of maps I’ve looked at in the past.

Peasholme Centre

It includes one participant, Jack Johnson, talking about the Peasholme Centre. I doubt anyone else bothered to record the history/significance of this building, as it was so short-lived. Like many ‘hostel’ type buildings, like the nurses’ accommodation at Bootham Park Hospital and the YWCA in Clifton, it had a short life. Extremely short, in fact. But so many people must have stayed here, and it’s important that its significance is on record, from the point of view of someone who knew the place properly, and remembers friends who have passed away who also knew it.

The Peasholme Centre remembered

Carecent

I remember when this organisation started, as it’s based in the rooms behind the Central Methodist church on St Saviourgate. The same place where, in the 1980s, I used to go to ‘Off the Streets’, a cafe/club, a place where many of us ‘alternative’ young people met, and where we could also get advice on coping with problems at home, getting benefits, that kind of thing. I don’t think that’s running anymore, but Carecent is, doing valuable work.

Steven Cochrane talks about Carecent, and sleeping sometimes on the steps of the church, under its grand portico, sharing a duvet.

Other perspectives

Watching this film has reminded me … of complaints twenty years ago, via letters to the local paper, about homeless people and street drinkers giving a bad impression as they gathered in Exhibition Square. I was working in King’s Manor at the time, right next to the square. I wasn’t offended by the street drinkers, but was offended by the letters. God forbid that a tourist should see a bit of real life in York instead of that Toytown perfect image we were beginning to present to the world.

There are of course many ways people end up homeless, drinking on the streets, maybe ‘begging’. Some of us think ‘There but for the grace of God go I’. Others just get offended. Each to their own. But we’re all connected, it’s all connected, we’re all walking the same streets. With our own personal maps, in our heads, of the significant places we head to when we need food, drink, company, sleep.

I’m thankful to the cartographers and excavators of the less well-known places.

More … elsewhere on the web

See the homeless heritage website for more videos, including information on the finds from the excavation at Bootham Park. I hadn’t realised, when writing my recent page on the site of the (demolished) St Maurice’s, that the homeless heritage project has recently studied this site in its Monkbar survey.

Arc Light, once based at Leeman Road, had a long struggle to find new premises. It is now based in a purpose-built facility on part of the Union Terrace car/coach park.

Carecent, St Saviourgate

When I worked at King’s Manor, as mentioned above, I was typesetting books for the Council for British Archaeology. It was good to read, on the website for this project that ‘the CBA provided both financial support and help in promoting the first stage of the project in Bristol, and without their willingness to explore a new view of archaeology this project would not have been born.’ Brilliant work by them and by everyone involved.

The post ‘It’s all connected’. Homeless heritage mapped (original ver) appeared first on York Stories.