The Archer Project CEO Tim is sleeping out for 14 days
For a long time now, we have contracted the cleaning at Harland Works with a social enterprise called Just Works that was founded by the Archer Project. (In fact there’s an old blog post here with more on this, including an interview with Lee, our amazing former cleaner).
The Archer Project supports people who are homeless, or rough sleeping in Sheffield. It does this in a lot of ways - one of the most well known is their day centre in the Cathedral. Here homeless people can get (and help make) breakfast, wash their clothes, get a shower, have a coffee and chill in the sitting room area, be supported by the team of people working and volunteering with CAP.
Research has helped us have a greater understanding now that a very large proportion of people who are homeless have experienced traumatic events. This understanding reveals that becoming homeless is not necessarily something that could happen to anyone who experiences bad ‘external’ events such as loosing a job and not being able to pay rent any more. Its something that’s more likely to happen to people who are also facing internal battles, often connected with traumatic experiences in their past that has left them vulnerable, less resilient, less rooted in a life they value.
The project set up a social enterprise to create employment opportunities for people recovering from the experiences of being homeless, and the experiences that had led them to become homeless. Having a job, a purpose, pay, a routine … all these things can help people build lives where they have more sense of purpose, and value, have more choices and control.
I am mentioning it this week because the CEO of the Archer Project has been writing a moving series of daily blogs tracking his experience of being homeless and sleeping rough for 14 days. They are compelling to read. Part of the reason he is doing this is to help the project draw attention to the increasing needs amongst those they support and their dependence on donations. So I thought we would share the links to his blog posts here, and encourage you to read them, and support the project if you can.
The daily blog posts can be read on their instagram account here https://www.instagram.com/archerproject/
Tim’s Sleep Out Slog has a fundraising page where you can donate too here: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/timssleepoutslog
