Spotlight on: Arran – Crisis at Christmas

This blog was written by Arran, a guardian currently living in Canning Town.

Spotlight on: Arran

I spent seven days between 23-30 December volunteering at a rough sleepers centre in Hackney. Crisis is a charity that supports homeless people and makes a big effort at Christmas to make sure no one has to be alone at the festive period.

I was a general volunteer so I was rotated on a variety of different roles. This included helping with the preparation and distribution of food at meal times, serving of hot and cold drinks, cleaning of toilets, cleaning of shower facilities, organising of movie screenings and many more.

What I enjoyed the most was when I got to sit down and talk to guests. Often just general conversation, but sometimes we covered deeper issues like such as how some people came to visit the centre in the first place. Sometimes these were hard to hear but I hope it helped that they were able to share. I was told by guests that it was nice to be acknowledged as they are generally ignored in day to day life when on the street.

It was hard to fit in as many volunteering hours during this period as I did as it was a very busy period at work for me. I’m glad I did and it was definitely a worthwhile way to spend the time. I really hope that I made Christmas more enjoyable for at least one person.

I will look to get as many people as I can involved next year.

Seasons Greetings! We’ll be away from the 24th December until the 3rd January.

Seasons greetings to all!

We’ll be away over the Christmas period from the 24th December until the 3rd January.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t apply to be a guardian, or get in contact about an empty building if you’re a property owner. Or, if you’ve got any general queries, feel free to send an email to hello@dotdotdotproperty.com.

We’ll be back in touch as soon as the office opens on the 3rd January.

We hope you have a great holiday season.

Many thanks,

The Team from Dot Dot Dot

Beigels, bhajis and Ben & Jerry’s

Last night we celebrated our annual guardian Christmas party, which also acted as a belated office warming party too. We thought we would theme the food around our geographical surrounding this year (Brick Lane) and so we had a fare of beigels and bhajis as well as various tubs of ice-cream thanks to Ben & Jerry. And of course no Christmas party would be complete without a big vat of mulled wine.

We also had our craft-corner at the party where people could make Christmas cards for poorly children which we will send to Post Pals to distribute. It is no surprise that some of the creations were just incredible including one card which included a knitted sheep and home made knitting needles!

All in all it was a lovely evening and was great to see so many guardians and supporters there, including a large number of people who were previously guardians with us.

Till next year. Merry Christmas.