As you will have seen on posts across my social media pages during November, December, January, February and March – I was involved in the Light Project Peterborough and the Peterborough Winter Night Shelter.

This was a shelter for the homeless that ran through the coldest months of the year. We offered a shelter, warm bed, dinner and breakfast, washing facilities and other support that the homeless guests needed.

You may be wondering what was achieved during the Peterborough Winter Night Shelter? I am pleased, in fact thrilled, to confirm the following;

12 churches were venues to the homeless guests over 18 weeks, from the 23rd November 2018 until the 1st April 2019. During this time a total of 1,016 beds were offered, and 928 of these were filled during the 18 weeks.

We gave a bed to 54 guests. Out of these 54 guests we were able to help 29 of them into accommodation.

371 volunteers helped during the 18 weeks of the Peterborough Winter Night Shelter. Out of these 99 were non-Christian.

The reason I choose to mention this is because this is a Christian based project, which takes place in churches. However, people that are not attached to a church, are of another religion or are non-religious (like me) are welcome to be involved.

Volunteers gave 8,700 hours to the project. Based on the minimum wage cost this is a total of £68,626.06 during 18 weeks. However this does not include the hours volunteers spent preparing meals at home, creating rotas, washing bedding, etc. 

As a side note, £19,409 was spent on the project. A large percent went towards the 3 paid staff on the project. Some of this went towards taxis, petrol and vans for moving guests from church and town. Some of this money was spent on sundries and just 1% of this was spent on marketing and publicity.

You can see why donations are so appreciated for this project. However, this also shows how well the money is spent and how much the donations are needed for this project to work.

We have a 10 Year Celebration Service coming up that I would for you to attend. It will be talking about the success of the project. You will hear more about how the project works and how you can get involved, if you choose.

This is taking place at Peterborough Cathedral on Saturday 8th June, 7.30pm. It would be great to see you there.