The Winchester Beacon

This #Blackfriday we have a great deal. For £10 you can give a bed for the night, a meal & hope to someone facing homelessness. Text BLACKFRIDAY to 70480 & donate £10. Texts cost the donation amount plus one standard network rate message.Give online: buff.ly/3Vev2Xw

Behind the scenes of The Winchester Beacon, a dedicated team of trustees give their time and expertise to support our vision to transform lives, inspire hope and end homelessness. Thank you Tracy, Julian, Fiona, Vince, David & Vicky. Meet our board: buff.ly/46hw6wx

Our vision is to transform lives, inspire hope and end homelessness. Our latest Annual Review highlights just some of the many ways we brought this vision to life with the help of our supporters during 2023-2024. Read more: Annual Review 2024 - The Winchester Beacon

When asked what they love about working at The Beacon, a member of staff responded: "It's the people-the residents, the staff and the volunteers" The good news is we looking for someone to join that team of great people. Come & make a difference with us: buff.ly/3zOhCcP

Are you passionate about helping others? We have an opportunity to join our team in the role of Project Worker. Find out more: buff.ly/3KfTlib

We are appealing for the donation of new and unused flasks which we can give to residents and people sleeping rough to ensure that they stay hydrated. Please bring any donations to our main site, 20B Jewry Street, in the car park just next to The Arc. Thank you.

Head to The Flower Pots Inn in Cheriton this Friday evening from 7.30pm to see local 15 piece swing band, Kasbah in action! They will be playing toe-tapping songs from the 1920s to modern day to raise funds for The Winchester Beacon. #livemusic

Our residents are ready for tomorrow's kick off! #Euros #Football

Where are we? Our main site is located on Jewry Street in Winchester. We are set back from the main road, in the Jewry Street Car Park which is next to The Arc. Here we accommodate and support 10 people. An additional 12 people stay at our 3 off-site properties.

It was wonderful to come together with our volunteers last night to mark #VolunteersWeek and to celebrate all that they give to support our vital work.

An evening volunteer has sweetly brought in flowers from their garden and put them on the tables in our dining room. This act of kindness communicates so much. It reminds our residents that there are people who care. The flowers bring life, joy and a feeling of hope.

We are grateful to @ukharvest for their donations of fresh fruit and vegetables. Today they delivered sweetcorn, bananas, eggs, horseradish and beans which we will use to make meals for our residents.

We have a lounge area where residents can watch TV, play board games, read or just have a chat. It is here that many strong friendships have been formed. Residents often find comfort and encouragement in other residents who understand what it feels like to be facing homelessness.

One of our current residents recently expressed his feelings and friendship through the preparation of a farewell dinner for a resident who is moving on. It was touching to see the huge amount of thought and care that went into making the meal happen.

Our residents stay with us until they a ready and able to move into their own longer term accommodation. Depending on their personal circumstances and the availability of housing, this can take weeks or months. Last year, the average stay with us was 111 nights.

A big thank you to our kind supporter who regularly calls up to ask what we need most in order to feed our residents over the coming weeks. Her generous donation is so helpful at a time when food costs are so high. Thank you.

Meet the lovely Tracie. She's is one of our fantastic members of staff and often works at weekends. Tracie likes to make sure The Beacon feels as homely as possible for our residents and recently baked a quick cake with donated ingredients. The baking smells filled the corridors!

When people arrive to stay with us, they have often spent many days, weeks or months in survival mode trying to battle the challenges and issues surrounding their #homelessness. They walk through the door and soon realise that they are now safe and they are no longer alone.

Happy Easter from all of us at The Winchester Beacon and a big thank you to Tesco at Winnall for generously donating Easter eggs for our residents. #Eastereggs #Easter #Tesco #Chocolate #Community #Thankyou

Recently, one of our volunteers was without water at home. He was helping at The Beacon in the evening and asked if he could grab a shower. A few days later, to say thank you for using our shower, he donated the compensation that he had just received from the water company.