Two Brent heroes were praised by the Prime Minister at No 10 this week as part of his Christmas Heroes initiative.  Danny Maher of Cricklewood Homeless Concern (CHC) and Marlon Nelson, Community Development Officer, South of Brent Deanery were chosen by Dawn Butler MP Brent South as examples of community leaders who are working together to ensure that no one has to sleep on the streets in Brent this winter.

The Route 18 Brent Winter Shelter was set up last year by Cricklewood Homeless Concern and the South Brent of Deanery Project, with grant aid from the Church Urban Fund and Kensal Rise Neighbourhood Working Fund. In the winter months of 2009 the shelter, which relies on a network of 240 church based volunteers and supportive individuals, provided 76 nights of accommodation, respite and care, 1100 bed spaces and over 2200 meals to the homeless in the Brent area – even when heavy snow brought much of London to a standstill.

Dawn Butler said  "I am a firm advocate and key supporter of this project and would like to see it become a regular scheme. It is truly impressive and testament to the power of the community coming together to help each other."

The Shelter reopened last Monday with seven churches supporting the project. Each church will provide services one night per week over the four months it is operating. Customers of the project will have a bed for the night, an evening meal, the company of volunteers and attend CHC during the day where professional workers work with them to find suitable full time accommodation as well as support for their problems. 

Danny Maher of CHC said: we were delighted with the success last year but amazed by the support and commitment we are receiving this year to make it even bigger and better. This is a very good example of the community - faith groups and charities - coming together to make sure we can make a real difference to the lives of people over the winter. We are grateful for the support of our MPs and indeed Brent Council for this project. Our greatest thanks goes to all the volunteers from the churches and CHC who are so committed to the Shelter idea. We are actually planning next year’s Shelter now as well where we want more churches and faith groups to work with us to make it even more special for our vulnerable people in Brent.

Marlon Nelson said:

 It was a great honour for me coming from Sudbury to be invited to the Christmas Heroes event on Wednesday and to share the success of the Route 18 Brent Winter Shelter with the Prime Minister.

The project would not be possible without hard work, dedication and love offered by the volunteers from All Souls Harlesden, St Michaels Tokyngton, St Lukes & Emmanuel West Kilburn, St Marks Kensal Rise, The Church of God Tubbs Road, Willesden 7^th Day Adventist and the Community Church of Harlesden. I want to give credit to all the volunteers that work so tirelessly to ensure the success of the night shelter.”

For information about The Route 18 Brent Winter Shelter please contact Charlotte Curran charlotte@chc-mail.org   0208 208 8590 or Marlon Nelson  Marlon.Nelson@london.anglican.org 07985 382 507. 

CHC is a place of change and opportunity for anyone in the community wanting to make positive choices regarding their lives. We are a community resource, with our centre and staff acting to help local residents achieve local goals. Our professional team of staff and volunteers are committed to making your visit to us a productive and positive experience.

Many of our customers will have long term problems which require support and we will work with them through their recovery. Other customers may just need some one-off advice or classes in various subjects,and may not stay with us for very long.

We aim to make a valuable difference to the lives of everyone who comes to us seeking training, advice or support. We work in partnership with our customers with both parties taking responsibility for ensuring a positive outcome. We are in the business of helping people to build their capacity to achieve their ambitions and supporting people in overcoming problems which are barriers to them achieving personal success.

As a community centre our services are available to any resident in the borough of (and in some cases beyond) Brent. Our customers work with us for a whole variety of reasons. This can be anything from a local resident wanting to take a class in IT to a long term rough sleeper who needs accommodation.

Our main service programmes are: training & employability support, drug & alcohol programmes, housing advice & support. We do not have accommodation ourselves but work with a range of housing partners such as housing associations and private sector landlords to whom we can refer you to as appropriate;although we can not guarantee that you will find accommodation.

At CHC we use an appointment system ensuring that you spend less time waiting to be seen and can be confident that our staff will have adequate time to spend with you. You can telephone us or call in to make an appointment.

We actively discourage other agencies from referring customers to us without first checking that we can help. This is to make sure that the visit is not a waste of your valuable time. If an agency does refer you to us, please ask them to phone us first to make sure we are in a position to help you. Make sure you are given the name of the person you are being referred to as well as a time and date for your appointment with us.