Volunteering is an important way to give back to the community. Charity organisations need the assistance of volunteers to support and fundraise projects. Some of the volunteering BoostPay have been actively taking part in includes helping with the renovations going on at Roffey Place with our partner charity Turning Tides. The charity is in the process of creating a pioneering new space and 24-hour service for those who are homeless with housing and on-site facilities.
Turning Tides The Work They Do
Turning Tides is an award-winning charity supporting people experiencing homelessness across West Sussex. Transforming lives by providing long-term solutions out of homelessness. They provide support through community hubs and residential projects. As the cost-of-living crisis escalates the demand for their services will continue to increase further.
Turning Tides truly turn people’s lives around, a quote from one of the many people they’ve helped: “I never thought in a million years I would be homeless myself. Turning Tides has saved my life. They gave me support, encouragement, made me feel safe and just gave me time to be. I will be forever thankful.” Yvonne
Volunteering At Roffey Place
BoostPay is taking part in a number of volunteering opportunities with the charity including the renovations happening at Roffey Place. The volunteering activities included painting, tidying out rubbish and gardening.
“Volunteering at Roffey place we got involved in painting the communal room, office rooms, put together beds and got the first 12 rooms ready for the first phase of the opening. Volunteering made us feel like we were making a difference in helping end homelessness and was a rewarding experience for everyone involved. It was nice to also get to know the Turning Tides team and how much they put into the project, and how much they rely on volunteers to accomplish what they need to achieve.”
We visited the open day on the 6th of December to see the completion of the first phase of the project which opened up to homeless residents that month. The project still has a way to go particularly as vandals destroyed some of the hard work that had already taken place costing £210k to sort. BoostPay will be doing further volunteering this new year to support where ever we can.
"Roffey Place still has a long way to go to reach its fundraising target and is not yet fully renovated. However, with the cold weather settling in, we are now in a position to welcome our first groups of residents and we absolutely couldn’t have managed this without you. It is no exaggeration to say your efforts may well have helped to save lives this winter. Please do continue to support this project where you can so we can help even more.”
Amy Thorley, Project Manager Turning Tides
Christmas Volunteering
We also took part in some festive volunteering providing meals in Horsham to the homeless community. Several departments took the Christmas reins to provide a comforting meal for the homeless in the week leading up to Christmas. Furthermore, Roffey Place also needs filling with additional items, with a list of required items on Turning Tides Amazon Wishlist. We have managed to gather some items together to help tick off some of their Wishlist which included coffee mugs, cutlery, rechargeable torch, desk lamp and activity books.
Turning Tides has many volunteering opportunities for people to get involved in including befriending volunteers, fundraising challenges and further renovation volunteering. We look forward to getting involved in more opportunities going forward. If you would like to also get involved in opportunities visit https://www.turning-tides.org.uk.
